On Sunday, on our way to Costco, we decided to drop by Ikea and finally buy the child's table and chairs that we've been eyeing for Anna. While we were shopping around, Anna made friends with a couple of ladies who were sort of on the same route through Ikea that we were. On our way out, as we stopped by the marketplace to pickup our table and chairs (if you've never been to Ikea, this is probably confusing. If you're never been to Ikea, first and foremost, my deepest condolences go out to you and yours. At Ikea, you first wander through a labyrinth of a showroom and then go downstairs to pickup what you want off of their stockroom shelves--interesting concept, those darn Swedes). When we got to the aisle where the tables and chairs were housed, the two ladies were on my heels. As I stood in the aisle, contemplating the fact that there were only 2 tables left--both of which looked sort of picked-over and potentially incomplete, one the ladies stepped up and grabbed both tables and put them in her cart. Not a big deal because it was my fault for just standing there, sort of hemming and hawing over if that was, in fact, the table that I wanted. The ladies then called over an Ikea employee to find out if there were more sets of legs for the tables (it looked as though at least one of the tables was lacking a couple of legs). I hung around, while the employee went on their mission, planning to ask him, when he returned if there were anymore tables like that in stock somewhere. When he got back to us and I asked my question, one of the ladies looked at me and said, "Oh no. I'm so sorry. I didn't know you wanted one of these tables too and I just reached right in front of you and stole it. Here, you take one. Oh my God, I feel so terrible". I told her that, no, it wasn't a big deal at all. That I was sort of in the beginning stages of shopping and that I come to Ikea often and it's not a big deal for me to come back on another day and pick up the table, once they were back in stock. Then, the lady got really teary-eyed and just kept saying, "I'm so sorry. I feel terrible". At this point, the other lady came over to me and said, "She's very emotional. She's a teacher and lost her classroom in the hurricane. She's trying to get some furniture with her own money so that the kids will have a nice classroom to come back to next week". At that point, I realized that I really, really, really didn't need that table yesterday, today or even next week. Sure put everything in to perspective for me.
As a reward for this little incident, it just so happened that Ikea was offering 10% off all purchases over the weekend, to help people affected by the storm (like that teacher) and then 5% of all proceeds went back to hurricane relief funds. 10% off of the $35 child's table that I wanted wasn't a big deal, but I've also been planning to buy a nice bookcase for Anna's new big girl room. The bookcase that I want is one of Ikea's core pieces so it never goes on sale. I figured that 10% off of that bookcase would be a decent deal, so we went ahead and grabbed it, while we were there, saving about $16 in the process.
Also, when we evacuated our power-less house, after the hurricane for a few days, Anna got her first haircut! Nothing too major--just a bang trim, but it made a big difference. Here are the pics:
Anna and Hattie after the deed was done
1 comment:
Surely, I remembered to give Anna a sticker, right? I sure hope so! She really deserved it! I posted on facebook that she got one, and now, as I think about it, I swear, I can't remember giving her one! If not, then by golly, Hattie owes her big time!
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