Hardware and Chocolates

Know what Rona sells in addition to home improvement hardware? They sell chocolates. What's with that?

The chocolate bars carry the Rona label. These chocolates are stocked at the cash, like magazines, so when you check out, you go, Hey chocolates, I want one.

I asked the cashier, Why is Rona selling chocolate? She said, I don't know. But I got to thinking...Rona's TV commercials feature a woman, all glammed up, looking at a problem in her house and wondering how to fix it. Meanwhile, her husband sits there looking doltzy, at a worse loss than her. The voiceover says, Rona - you can do it, we can help. Rona's commercials target women. The whole store is set up so it's easier to find things, their staff is more willing to help, the place is less crowded, they sell decorative furnishing as well. Rona has a softer image than other hardware and home improvement centres. It makes sense they want to build on that softer image with chocolates. If women shop at Rona, as I did, it's a treat for them to find chocolate among the hardware, as I did.

Rona Home & Garden rivals Home Depot any day for me.

Hey Freddie, hey Armour

You eat my food, you wear my clothes, you sleep in my bed. You said you'd blog with me. But you're no show so far. What's with that?

HP Sauced

We pre-ordered Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince back in February. The Boy was keen to get it. The bookstore's promise was that by pre-ordering, we'd be the first to get the book and we'd get it at 40% off.

Closer to the book release date, I learned that many book sellers were hosting launch parties the night of July 15. All these pre-teens and adults were showing up at the parties in costumes. They even held contests for the best outfit. Yes, it's a good marketing ploy, yes, it gets pre-teens excited about reading. Except the book seller we ordered from was selling the book at 40% off on launch night, and you could pick up the book at 12:01 AM July 16, if you attended the party.

So why did we pre-order? We were not the first to get the book, we did not save extra money. True, I would not have gone to the launch party. And we did get the book on July 16 at 40% off. Still, I feel ripped off for some reason.

Note to self: Do not fall for book selling ploys again. (But I will. Because I don't have to go out at midnight, I still get the book on the day they say, at the discount they offered, plus a "magic card" that entitles the holder to a discount of $5 to $100 off the next purchase of $50 or more in books. Yea, yea, another marketing ploy.)

Second note to self: Good god, am I a competitive and petty consumer? (Yes I am.)

Plight of Misery

I took a little camping trip up the Bruce Peninsula this weekend. The whole weekend was warm and sunny. Even though we were camping, we took most of our meals in a restaurant because D forgot to pack the stove and lantern. I mean, not only could we not cook, but we also had to not cook in the dark. But that's an other story.

During one of our meals at an outdoor restaurant, this is what I witnessed:

A man and his family came in. Before he even sat down, he started adjusting the umbrella attached to the table in an effort to get some shade over the seats. I wondered why he didn't just go to one of the other tables that already had the umbrella bent and positioned to give shade. The umbrella didn't seem cooperative, so he asked the waitress to fix the umbrella. The waitress said the umbrella is probablly broken because there was tape around the adjustment mechanism, so she didn't touch the umbrella. She suggested he moved to a different table. The man's teenaged son however, was completely embarrassed by his father's struggle with the umbrella and refused to change tables. After some words with the father, he said, "If we move, let's move to that table that is in the shade. It doesn't have an umbrella." But the man said, "No, I want to sit here."

Not happy with the waitress' answer or his son's refusal to move to a table with an umbrella, the man flagged down a waiter, who happily adjusted the umbrella for him. The waiter said, "Just be careful, the wind may blow the umbrella about."

Sure enough, each time the wind came up, the umbrella spun on its adjustment pivot, knocking passersby in the head and allowing the full force of the sun to hit the man's table. He spent most of the time holding the umbrella steady with one hand. He looked most unhappy. His poor wife and son looked frustrated with the man.

So I was thinking...Why is this family out when they are so full of misery? Why didn't the man just go to a table in the shade? I don't know. I think this man came into the restaurant looking for reasons to be unhappy. What's with people like that?