Holiday "Sales"

I learned a lesson in "sale" advertisements in the newspaper today.
Today was what I thought to be my last opportunity to finish my Christmas shopping since the weather will likely be bad for the rest of the week. I was pretty much done except for Jonathan's gift. I've been watching the ads, waiting for the best "sale" price to pop up on what I was looking for. Well, this Sunday's ads weren't the best but I had put it off for too long and it was now or never. I looked in other stores last week for their advertised prices, but never seemed to find the advertised "sale" price on the shelf. I would then walk out of the store frustrated because I couldn't finish my shopping. It seemed all the stores were advertising the same item for about the same price, but the item never seemed to be available when I got there.
This weeks ads had only one store advertising what I wanted and thankfully for the same price as the other stores from last weeks ads. Since I know the husband will read this post, I will need to leave the item and the certain office store anonymous. So, I made sure to hit the store today, Monday, to make sure they would still be in stock. I made sure to take the ad with me this time and thankfully I did because the store did not have their ad sitting out for people to browse.
I proceeded to search the store for the item I was looking for. Just as I was about to give up and ask for help, I found what I was looking for. I compared the item numbers to make sure they matched up to the ad I had in my hand. I then noticed that the store did not have the sale price marked next to the item in the store. In fact, the item was marked in the store $100 more then then ad. I looked up and noticed that there was a sign next to the model that said "out of stock". I was crushed and nearly had a meltdown right there in the store. I had waited too long for the best price and now I couldn't afford any of the others that were not on sale.
I continued to stand there and ponder a plan B but couldn't come up with anything else. I then looked at the item again and saw that even though the item showed as "out of stock", there were still tags left to be pulled for the item. So.....I pulled a tag. I began to plan how I was going to handle this when I took my tag to the counter for my "out of stock" item. I was preparing myself to play dumb when they would tell me that it was out of stock and then I would ask for a rain check for my item at the sale price. I thought it was pretty silly that they would be "out of stock" of an item they were just advertising the day before which is why I thought a rain check would be fare.
So I stepped up to the counter and just when she was about to take my tag, the phone rang. The girl took the call to help another customer. As she was on the phone, I began to sweat. I was nervous! I was starting to think I was going to crack under the pressure. After what seemed like forever, the girl got off the phone and took my tag and said,"hold on a minute". She went to the back counter to talk to someone with my tag in her hand. They both looked at me and then I heard her say "well...she has an ad with her". The other person nodded and then my checkout girl went to a back room and came out with the "out of stock" item in her hand. Once I got over the relief I felt for not having to put on the act, I started to feel a little manipulated by the "out of stock" sign they had by the item when I first saw it in the store. And of course I had to show the girl the ad in order for me to get the sale price. Then I said "oh wait a minute, I have a coupon". Her jaw dropped as I gave her my 10% off coupon. If I could have read her mind right then, I know she was thinking "I just took $100 off this thing, now she wants another 10% off? the nerve!" Yes folks, I had the nerve!
I then paid for my item and wished the girl a Merry Christmas.

Shopping lesson for the day: Never assume the signs in the store are correct AND always take the ad with you. Sometimes you just have to get the nerve!