The Q-Tips Are Going in the Safe

Tweet

There have been many times when I have uttered the phrase, "Sometimes you just can't make things up." It's often referred to when writing fiction, and about things that happen in real life that go beyond even the wildest imagination. We went to Ollie's today. It's fun to walk around as it's a liquidation store and there are always new and interesting finds in among the usual fare they tend to stock. We saw a 300-count pack of cotton swabs for 99 cents, and we just ran out yesterday. Not sure why that didn't go on the list sooner, but it is what it is. Either way, in the cart they went along with some other items we intended to buy. The total was rung up and the cashier got a very perplexed look and said, "Your total is $9,016.27." In no way was she informing us of this. She was literally confused and shocked. "What the heck did I ring up?" she said out loud, asking no one in particular. But she said it loud enough the cashier across from her said, "It's the cotton swabs. You have to override it." Our actual bill was $48.02, so, taxes and other things notwithstanding that means those cotton swabs rang up somewhere around $8,900. I have to say it offered up fodder for a series of jokes as she was fiddling around the register trying to fix the issue. The guy behind me joked, "It's those damn tariffs." I joked, "Wow, I knew inflation was bad, but who knew?" Needless to say, when we got home I told my wife, "When you put those cotton swabs away, put them in the safe." No. Seriously. I am not making this up. Someone really screwed the pooch when they programmed those cotton swabs into the pricing system. It was comical when the cashier sort of patted herself on the back and said, "I'm glad I caught that." I thought quietly to myself if you hadn't caught it, honey, you aren't cut out for this job, and if the customer didn't catch it, he deserves to pay the $9,016.27.