Three things that made me grumpy today.
1. Target, Malvern Central.
I’ve been wanting a copy NHL 2005, mainly, well only, because it has Marcus Naslund, the captain of my beloved Vancouver Canucks, on the cover. As Target was having a 15% off day, and Target price match K-Mart where it was cheaper, I thought I’d wander down to the local Target and pick it up.
There it was, just sitting on the shelf waiting for a Canuck loving Melbournian Xbox owner to come along and take it home. I took it to the counter and asked if they’d price match.
“No, there’s no K-Mart near here.” came the reply.
So, even though K-Mart and Target are part of the same giant Coles Myer conglomerate, and they were guaranteed a sale, a decision had made that would require me to hop in my car, drive to another store and pay them there. Their policy, while apparently good for them in some unfathomable way, did nothing but drive this customer to their nearest competitor. I will now go out of my way to ensure Coles Myer don’t get my money for this, and other, Xbox games.
2. Ebay.
Rae and Phee have fallen in love with Midtown Madness 3. Being the good bargain hunters we are I turned to Ebay to grab a copy so we can give Daniel back his loaner. Everything was going fine until, with 7 minutes to go, I thought I’d bid.
Of course Ebay, for the first time, crashed. Couldn’t place a bid for love or money. Doubly of course a couple of minutes after the auction closed it was working fine. And the damn thing went for only $15 too. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
3. Car Park
I was leaving work today, as I always do, through the public exit. This gives me traffic lights to turn right across traffic and makes life a lot less stressful than leaving by the staff exit and risking car and limb each night.
The big four wheel drive in front of me surrenders its ticket and drives through the boom gate. I swipe my pass only to turn and see that the four-wheel-idiot has stopped just the other side of the boom to give way to a car; a car it didn’t have to give way too under any laws I know of.
So as this good Samaritan idiot sits there, probably feeling quite good about themselves, the boom comes down. I swipe again but no, the computer is cunning. It knows I have already left and haven’t come back in so the boom stays down as four-wheel-doesn’t-have-a-clue drives off. I had to go around the other side of the building, hop out of the car, swipe myself in and then drive back to swipe myself out again.
Bloody four wheel drive drivers.
can i just say i hate people who own huge 4 wheel drive vehicles, drive in the city in them, and never “OFF ROAD” which is what they were made for, why have it if you have never taken the bloody thing off the cement??and women who park them in shopping centres dont even get me started about that!
As a fellow swipe card/boom gate user you are definately not alone in your frustration. Actually this new system by definition encourages you to not be a good samaritan. Clearly a fact that escaped the non staff member in front of you.
And I was worried the boom was going to come down on the car. I always worry about that. Stoopid other drivers.
OK, I won’t tell anyone that I got it from a Target yesterday. I guess you didn’t know where I bought it, and I didn’t know that you’d already vetoed that conglomerate, so that works out fine.
I guess I won’t tell anyone that you kicked my butt in the game last night either. That’s kinda embarrassing.
Gee Tony, i just cycle around that thing everyday!
never even knew you had to swipe.
1. No K-Mart near Malvern? What about Chadstone? It’s like 4km down the road. How close do they want it to be?
2. MM3 will show up again on eBay cheap. I was very depressed at seeing lots of copies going for $15-20, given I was stupid enough to buy it new for $70.
3. Maybe it’s because I’m a goody-two-shoes, but I hate drivers who needlessly give way when they’re not supposed to. If someone offers it to me, I decline. No, the laws say YOU should go first. Abide by the law and don’t cause confusion. If you go around making up traffic laws as you go, it just leads to more accidents.