Letters to the Editor, Jan. 12, 2012

Published: January 12, 2012

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A typical shopping trip

EDITOR: On Saturday, Jan. 7, my wife and I decided to do some shopping, and armed with $23.50 in coupons, we started with lunch, where we used the first coupon, a $4 one.

After lunch we went to recycle two ink cartridges, and purchased two new ink cartridges using another combination of coupons totaling $15, bringing out total bill to $16.

Next we went to another store with the intention to talk to someone in authority to help us collect a $20 credit for purchasing a special they promoted last August - one of those deals where you paid the full price and then sent in the original receipt, and some other information, and you then were to get your refund in 4 to 6 weeks.

When I first asked the person at the return desk, she said this was handled by corporate, and the stores had no authority to do anything with them. I informed her I had sent corporate an e-mail and they promptly ignored me. My recourse was to reach out and touch someone local, and she was it. After that, she called a supervisor, and they told her it takes 4 to 6 weeks, and I told her it had already been 19 weeks, and no refund sent yet.

The supervisor then told her to give me a gift card, which she did without really checking into the details, and I ended up with a $10 card when the original deal was for $20. I finally gave up, and quietly left her to the next victim, and continued to shop.

While traveling through the aisles and choosing the items we wanted, I observed many misplaced items, and concluded the gremlins were at work, as there were bread and rolls in the soap aisle, juice in the paper products, etc.

When we went to check out, there was a cart loaded with various items and a lot of fresh meats, sausage, etc. in it, and nobody with it. When it was our turn to check out, we informed the checker about the abandoned cart and he told another employee, who took the cart away. I wonder what the person who left the cart got out of possibly spoiling the meat left in the cart.

At our next stop we again observed the same thing with small items left randomly in the obvious wrong places, and the lipstick section display cases smeared with lipstick, and broken tubes of it on the floor. I talked to an employee in the department, and she said that happens all the time, and it costs the stores a great deal of money and employees' time to keep it cleaned up.

We are a country with an abundance of food and material things, and things like this are taken for granted, but I cannot understand what satisfaction a person gets out of destroying another's property. This is just the same as shoplifting, only harder to detect and prosecute.

Bill Dell

Towanda

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