My Toy Story Shopping Adventure/Fiasco/Victory?!

There are no other people in the world with whom I would rather share my shopping adventures, fiascos, victories etc with than my fellow Hip2Save readers. For this reason, I would like to share with you my latest shopping adventure/fiasco/victory that occurred last night.

Yesterday, I promised my 5 year old son, Ayden, that I would buy the new Toy Story 2 DVD for him if he was extra good (I know, I know…bribery is not the best parenting method but I do use it occasionally). Needless to say, Ayden was extremely well behaved throughout the day so I was very excited to take off to Toys R Us as soon as my hubby came home from work. I literally gave him and the kids a quick kiss, grabbed my coupon binder and ran out the door. I had been craving some bargain shopping all day long!

So I happily drove myself to Toys R Us envisioning all the savings I was going to experience with my coupons and the awesome sale that Toys R Us was offering when you purchase both the Toy Story and Toy Story 2 DVDs together. As soon as I entered the store, I went straight towards the DVD section and to my surprise they seemed to be out of stock. No way, I thought. How could a store advertise such an awesome price and not have a huge supply of the item?! How could they not be prepared? I marched over to the Customer Service desk and was informed that yes, they truly were out of stock… but will be getting more in later. The manager then asked if I was familiar with price matching (I told him just a little 😉 ) and suggested that I head over to Target with the Toys R Us ad in hand to price match the DVDs.

OK, I thought Plan B. I jumped back in my car and headed over to Target determined that I would leave with those prized DVDs in hand! I walked in to Target full of confidence and headed right to the movie section where low and behold, I saw shelves full of Toy Story but NO Toy Story 2!! OK, I told myself…they must have it displayed somewhere else? As I stood there with a bewildered expression on my face clutching my Toys R Us ad, a very nice Target employee whispered “We sold out of em’ at noon.” No, I thought…no way! I am not going home without those DVDs.

Now at this point, I could have returned home with empty hands and my 5 year old would have survived. He would have been upset for all of about 5 minutes and then would have forgotten about the whole situation. But no, this was no longer entirely about him. This was about my desire to snag that great deal and I was going to snag it one way or another!

OK, I thought…Plan C. Since I was not prepared to initiate Plan C (let alone Plan B!), I sat in my car for several minutes until I remembered a beautiful vision that I had spotted earlier. On my drive over to Target, I had noticed a banner across a Best Buy store that said “We do price matching.” So begins my Plan C.

I made it over to Best Buy in record time and flew through the doors. I immediately noticed the beautiful (almost glowing) display of BOTH Toy Story and Toy Story 2 DVDs. I quickly discovered why the display was almost overflowing…they were priced at $29.99 each! No big deal, I thought. I still had the Toys R Us ad tucked under my arm…this would be a piece of cake. I scoped out the cashiers (all female) and chose a young and bubbly cashier who I was sure would make this a quick and easy transaction.

Boy was I wrong! As soon as I placed the Toys R Us ad on the counter, she rolled her eyes and here is how our conversation went…

Bubbly cashier: “I hope you are not going to try to price match those DVDs because I know for a fact that Toys R Us is sold out of them.”

Me: “Yes, they are sold out. That is why I am here wanting to price match them.”

Bubbly cashier: “Well, Best Buy will only price match items that are in stock at the competitor’s store. Sorry about that.”

Me: “The whole reason that I came here is because they were out of stock. I am not going to come back here tomorrow when Toys R Us receives a new shipment…I’ll just go to Toys R Us. So if you can’t price match the items for me now, then you are going to lose my business and that seems kinda silly.”

Cashier (not so bubbly anymore): “Well, that’s the policy.”

Me: “I would like to speak with your manager please”

Cashier: “Manager to the front please”

Manager arrives…I explain the situation and like I stated to the cashier, I reinforce that I will be buying the DVDs elsewhere if the price matching is not applied….

Manager: “Go ahead and do the price matching”

Cashier (now shocked)…applies the price matching of $16.99 for each DVD.

I then confidently hand over the 2 $10/1 printable coupons that I have been hiding in my wallet (Although I know that these should be accepted without a problem, I am still nervous that the cashier or manager will refuse to take them and then another battle will ensue).

Cashier: “I can’t take these too”

Manager: “Yes, you can; they are just manufacturer coupons.” (Thank goodness for this manager!)

Finally, VICTORY!

After 2 hours of shopping, I was satisfied as I walked out of Best Buy with those prized DVDs in hand. I was victorious and nothing at that moment felt better! I hope you have enjoyed my little victory story and that it inspires you to stand up for yourself and to be confident and determined to save as well. Good luck to all of you that have yet to purchase these DVDs…hope that you only have to initiate Plan A! 😉