Another step towards adulthood...

Yesterday the husband and I bought a new washer and dryer. Our dryer had broken and it wasn't worth fixing, so we decided to take advantage of Memorial Day sales and get a whole new set.

The whole process was gut-wrenching for me for a few reasons, but mainly because I take things very personally, I do not make decisions, and I feel that I have a moral obligation to not buy from big box retailers if there is another option.

Lets just focus on this moral obligation for a bit, shall we?

I believe it stems from the fact that I worked at small local businesses while growing up. I am thinking particularly of the lumber store my Aunt and Uncle owned. Well, after they and the other full time staff members put their heart and soul into building this wonderful company they were eventually forced to shut down because they couldn't compete with other big box lumber yards prices. Customers would come and get small purchases like screws and a couple pieces of wood from the local company (not to mention a wealth of knowledge from staff members), but ultimately they would buy their big purchases from the larger stores that could offer more competitive prices (and had un-knowledgeable staff).

So here we were in that very situation. We went to the local store and got a good estimate. We then went to the big box appliance store to compare prices. While there I am stressing out to the max because we had to make a decision and because the big box retailer offered us a slightly better deal for 20 bucks less... and the longer the husband and I talked the more the salesman kept taking off the bill. Finally I said to the husband:

you know how I take things really personally and sometimes think irrational thoughts? Well, I just feel like we are stealing money away from the salesman at the local store if we buy something here...

The husband laughed and said he knew thats what I was thinking. Ultimately we decided to go with the local store. We went back to the small store and the husband haggled the price down to the same amount the big box retailer had given us!

I am happy with the decision we made, and so is the husband. I guess it was a good Memorial Day.

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Side Note: After shopping we were going out to eat to the local Mexican Restaurant but they had a note on their door in English and Spanish that read:

"We will be closing at 5:30 on Labor Day"