Name Your Own Price

I stopped at Arby’s Wednesday because we made a mad dash out the door to get Victor to chess club and I forgot Lovely’s lunch. It was just one of those things. I started building an ironing board hanger and forgot the time. Then I was showering off the sweat and wood chips and throwing kids in the car and forgot the food.

After dropping Victor off, Lovely and I went to an Arby’s drive-up. I ordered her some mozzarella sticks and a Jr. Roast Beef Sandwhich which was completely ridiculous considering we’re lucky if she’ll eat two bites in a row of anything. I don’t know why, I just saw it and ordered it. Then as I’m driving away from the order board I hear, “That will be $5.27.” What! I am not buying a $5 meal for a one year old!

Proving how truly weird I am I pulled up to the window and said, “I don’t want those cheese sticks. You don’t have any prices on the board so I didn’t know they were going to cost $3.” The manager replied, “Tell you what, I’ll just charge you $1.99 for them. We make enough money on this stuff as it is.”

So there you have it. You didn’t know you could negotiate a deal at a fast food restaurant did you? Next time you pull up to McDonalds say, “I’ll give you 2 bucks for a Big Mac and large fry. Take it or leave it.” This could start a whole revolution. Grease Line - Name your own price for fast food.

That was so much fun that I decided to take on another national chain, REI. I’ve been shopping for a Bob stroller for some time, looking for one on sale. For some reason $360 is a little more than I want to spend on a stroller! But Bob. Come on. I have to have a Bob! I chased some stranger down at the park on Tuesday and asked him where he got his. REI amazingly was having a sale! So the next day after my successful negotiations at Arby's, I call REI. Well apparently the sale ended on Monday. So I ask if I can get the sale price now. No. I let the guy sweet talk me a bit, trying to convince me to become an REI member and then I ask him again if I can get the sale price on the stroller. No. I asked if I could talk to a manager about it and he said he was the manager of that department. That was the end of that conversation as you might imagine.

Undaunted, I called back and asked for the store manager. Aren’t I obnoxious? After telling him my sad story about how my last dying wish was to own a Bob stroller but I couldn’t afford to pay full price and couldn’t he just give me the sale price on it, the answer was again, No. What was the deal with these guys? Are they heartless? They obviously didn’t get the same superior training as those lovable guys at Arby’s.

It was this same Arby’s btw that I had previously visited five years ago. Picture me with two starving little kids. That wasn’t the sad part. The sad part was that I was starving and you know how I get when I’m hungry! It’s like the oxygen masks on an airplane. If I haven’t put mine on first, I can’t help anyone else with theirs. In fact, if I had to go another 5 minutes without my oxygen mask I was going to be dry-heaving out the car window. I pulled up and ordered my food only to get to the window and realize I didn’t have my purse. I think I almost started crying. Penniless and hungry as we were, Arby’s did not turn us away. “This one’s on us,” the clerk proposed. I think I shed some happy tears at that man’s kindness!

Apparently REI doesn’t do freebees. Let’s not ever shop there again. If those people don’t know how to give away a stroller to a woman who is so obviously in need then they don’t deserve our money!