Honesty is amazing

It has been a most interesting day, surprisingly. The initial plan was to go Target-hopping. This is something that the student suggests is unique to us. As in, nobody else does this. She claims to meet people in college and when people tell her where they are from, familiarity is usually an offshoot of having been to the Target store in that town. Malvern? Oh yes, I know where that is. There's a Target there. Exton? Yes, I know Exton. There's a Target there. You get the idea. When I was pregnant with her, I got myself a Target credit card because all the forthcoming purchases of baby things could certainly use some form of discount. The deal then, before this whole 5% off every purchase everyday, was that you had to earn credits towards a 10% off coupon which they will send you in the mail and you can use for an entire day at any Target store. We would plan trips around this coupon. Let's drive down to Delaware, where there is tax-free shopping and shop at 2 or 3 Target stores. Sometimes, we would try to locate SuperTargets, which they only had in like Virginia. The point for going to different Target stores is because the merchandise or stocks can differ. And we want to make sure we got everything we needed, stocked up, while we had the extra discount. 

Those days are gone but we do still have a set of Target stores that we rotate, all because the nearest one, in our town, has the worst customer service and also charges you for plastic bags. Bad customer service was their problem from the moment that store opened and even now, we would rather drive to the Target we used to go to, when we lived further west, or to the one near my husband's office, a little north of here whenever we had to do a return or store pick up. The little dance around the $1 bag fee is not an issue with those stores. 

This thing with the plastic bags, it's the worst. I know the people that decided that it was a good idea to ditch the plastic bags, or simply charge for them, may have been well-meaning. All for the environment! But if you ask me, none of this is helping. This is, in fact, creating more waste. At least that's my theory. Because while we bring our own grocery bags to shop at Wegmans, when we shop for things other than groceries, it's rare that we have a shopping bag with us. I mean, who does that? I have a tiny tote in my purse that I use for impromptu small purchases but if I spend $200 at American Eagle, I expect to get a bag with my purchase. When I pick up items that I ordered online from Target, the associate will ask me if I need the bags and I say no. If I don't have a bag with me, I would just carry the items with my hands. Or I can leave them in the shopping cart and take them to my car. I would do anything to avoid the bag fee. And no, I do not want another reusable shopping bag. I recall when we moved out of the house that we lived in for 10 years, I had about 3 Rubbermaid boxes filled with "reusable" bags that I did not reuse because they were usually too small or too big for groceries, had an impractical design, were made of materials that could not be washed or were simply either too ugly or forgotten about. The thing about these reusable bags is that if you no longer use them, the only place they would up in is the landfill. And isn't that part of the reason we were being told to get away from plastic? Because they just filled up the landfills? Well, guess what? The reusable bags are the same. You can't donate them to Goodwill. They simply go to the trash. Bags are such an awful investment. Use them until they're ripped and torn and then throw them away. At least the plastic bags, I can use them to line the trash bins around the house. I actually reuse them too. The paper bags from retail stores? I never know what to do with them. Often, I just throw them away. 

I digress. Sorry, this bag fee is a real issue for me. We actually drove down to Springfield over the weekend for a pair of pajama pants that I wanted the family to wear as Christmas outfits. We have the Hello Kitty t-shirts from Old Navy to go with them. But we weren't able to find any Target nearby that still had these pajamas in stock. My husband was finally willing to get them because they had gone on sale and he had a coupon in his Target 360 Circle app (they keep changing the name of this, I think that's what it is called now) to use on it additionally. The trip was a success but we also discovered a dent on the front bumper of my car which we hadn't noticed before. My husband was kind of upset the whole day after that. He thought that someone at the diner we ate at did it. But today, I would have the answer to that mystery. 

After school drop off, I was just watching the Today show in my living room and the bell rang. I had left my phone upstairs when I ran the washer so I didn't have access to the doorbell camera. Ordinarily, we don't answer the door. We trained our children to remain quiet and pretend like no one is home when the bell rings. They are not allowed to answer the door unless specifically told by a parent to do so and only if they know who is at the door. That's why we have a doorbell camera. But something told me to open the door and see who it was. It was our neighbor across the street with a box of chocolates offering an apology for bumping our car one rainy night last week. He said that he'd been meaning to come by and let us know but they'd been sick and didn't want to make anyone else sick. He also offered to pay for any repairs. I thanked him for his honesty and the chocolate and said that I would let my husband know. They're good neighbors. My husband was relieved to find out the reason our car had a ding and said he would fix it himself. I'm glad that's all worked out. I suppose I should text him that this was our decision, so he doesn't worry that there is going to be a bill coming his way. 

Playlist Recommendation: Pinch Me, Barenaked Ladies