Friday, November 09, 2007

Seriously.


I don't know how I do these things to myself but it's 4:30am and I'm awake. Stupid sleep cycle.

Anyways, thought I would breeze in and say thank you to Kristie who inspired an online shopping spree at Chapters.

I ordered the BBC movie North and South which was why I ended up over there. Then I remembered some books my cousin's boyfriend wanted for Christmas so 'boom' I got that done and I ordered The Serpent Prince by Hoyt because of the buzz. Thing is I have a weird feeling I already own the book.

Yep.

Too lazy to go look.

Oh and I ordered Caine's Reckoning by Sarah McCarty which brings me to an inner rant that I will now spew out onto you guys.

I'll apologize now.

First.

WTF with the size of the font in some of these books lately. I have almost perfect vision and I have reading glasses to make it easier (they suck wood by the way) but my-lanta that stuff is itty-bitty to read!

I've just started Promises Linger and I'm already intrigued but just by the size of the print I know it's going to take me days to finish the book.

I have a challenge people!

I still have 17 more books I need to read before the end of the year! Since it's 46 days to Christmas and Bob has like three weeks of vacation he needs to use up that leaves me with - crap, more math - well, half those days to read. So 25 days divided by 3 because I'm lame (and by that I mean I'm a slow reader and I'm pretty sure I have to do all the wrapping again this year) and I get, 8?

Okay. Right. Stay positive. I can totally do this.

By the end of next year.

No, right. This year. Got it.

THEN, and again I'll apologize to my American friends whose dollar is not doing well while our Canadian dollar is way above where they thought it would go which many people are all 'yay' but it's really not good for export businesses who are taking a friggin' bath but you know, that's way too much reality for me to deal with.

Okay, where was I?

Right. Not only do I have to worry about commodities (Bob works in forestry) and the possible tanking of certain businesses, I can't even get a 'wazzup!' from Chapters!?

I placed my order this morning and saved a lousy 10 bucks on a 90 dollar order. Uh, excuse me? So I'm already pissed and then I go to Walmart because I have to buy socks, undies, you know the kit & caboodle and I stumble into the book aisle. Don't ask. I'm sure I tripped over an aardvark or something like that. Inconsiderate really. But there I am in the book aisle and there are signs every where and you know what they say?

We now honor the US price on books.

Holy #@%^%#@#&^%#@!!!!

For those of you not aware this is at least 2 dollars a book! Seeing as how I bought the equivalent of 9 books at Chapters I got ripped by at least 8 bucks. Lord Ha'mercy I just realized one of the books I bought was a trade and would have been like 4 bucks cheaper.

If they sold the book!

Add further insult to injury I run into the grocery store where there books are 25% off.

Oh! Oh!!! Get this. And seriously, this chaps my ass.

If you go to Chapters online it will give you this pretty little chart where you see what kind of savings you will now get.

The first marker is the 10 dollar mark. And by this I mean you get savings by the book, not what you spend and since most mass market paperback books are 9.99 they don't fuckin qualify.

HELL-O!

So I'm going to write a letter to 'Heather' (that's the owners name and well, they have this whole thing at the bookstore about 'Heather's Picks' - uh, don't care, don't know Heather!!) and tell her just how stinking rude her so called policy is.

I laid this all on Bob tonight and he was all 'write it, do it' and I realized I already knew the answer I was going to get. 'Hey, if you can buy the books you have on order at that local grocery store or at your Big Box store then have at it.'

Screwed I tell ya.

I have a thing about stealing (yeah, that's right) and they are taking the currency rate and stealing me blind.

Mad! I tell ya.

Obviously I need to chillax but if a whole bunch of other stuff is about to get shitty can I at least get a break on my book purchases!

Can I get a little respect. (Channeling Chris Rock right now)

I would cancel my order except it would mean I don't have one more gift off my Christmas list and honey, I can't afford to go backwards.

And on that note, I'm going to let Chris do some ranting. Not work friendly.


6 comments:

nath said...

The problem with grocery stores and Walmart is that they don't have a wide selection. So you don't really have a choice to go to Chapters/Indigo for older books... by the way, it's always been like that... Walmart had 25%off as well as the grocery stores (well the grocery stores might have less, maybe 15% off).

Also, the publishing houses are decreasing their prices already... so now, there's only 1$ difference. So even if you go to Walmart and buy those new books, you don't save 2$, you only save 1$ which means there's not much of a difference.

And not that I want to defend Chapters or anything, but as they say on their website, they buy and sell books in Canadian dollars... So they don't gain anything from a stronger dollar.

Rosie said...

Trickle down ecomonics. It's from President Reagan's era. If the corporation saves it should trickle down to the consumer. Uh, yeah, right.

Still I am glad to see you got NORTH and SOUTH. Can't wait to hear the verdict.

Kristie (J) said...

First off - A Great Big Huge SQEEAAALLL on getting North and South. If you don't watch it asap when it arrives and report on it - I am hunting you dooowwwnnn girl - and I know where you live!
On book prices - yah - that bites the big one doesn't it? I was in Chapters the other day picking up a couple of books and no savings at all with the current dollar. Just a big sign saying it's not us! It's the publishers!
Riiighhht. And as Nath says - the selection at Walmart and the grocery stores sucks

Dev said...

I have to agree that the selection just isn't there at walmart ~ although I'm usually pretty lucky with my finds there. I now only have to go to B&N and pay full price when I just "have to have it now".

I can't wait to see what you think of North and South.

C2 said...

Yup!! The world is filled with weasels, I tell you!

Has anyone noticed that the book selection at Walmart (which was never good) has gotten substantially worse lately? I think they have a new jobber taking care of it - and they suck. :-p

Calm blue ocean...

Megan Frampton said...

I really, really want to see North and South, I got it on hold from the NYPL, but couldn't make it into Manhattan to pick it up.

How lame is that?

But, yeah, it kills me when I find stuff cheaper somewhere else. Although Walmart is eeee-vil, and I have to take a stand somewhere.

I have heard good things about Sarah McCarty, let me know about that.