Wal-Mart is Stupid

(The following are the real life events that led up to me being 5 seconds away from declaring a full on Jihad against Wal-Mart.)

Mason's sleep schedule is all over the place and though he goes to sleep by himself in his bouncer, more often than not he ends up in our bed at some point in the night.  I am not about to be dealing with this for the next 5 years of his life, so we're going to end it now come hell or high water.  He'll lay there quietly if his mobile is on but it's a wind up which means it lasts for 3 minutes TOPS.  You can imagine how much it sucks trying to get him to fall asleep when you're having to haul ass into his room every 3 minutes to wind it back up. The kid practically gives birth to a donkey if it comes to a stop and then you have to start the whole calming down process all over again.  NOT. FUN.  So Andrew finds a battery operated one on WalMart.com that plays music for 20 minutes, costs $38 and ships free to the store.  Well, I want it now and it says it's in stock so I head up to the one store I hate more than anything. 

I get there and I am a woman on a mission.  There my savior is........perched in all it's 8HoursOfSleepWithoutMasonInMyBed, glory.  I pick it up but I notice the price tag says it's $47.  Maybe it's the wrong one?  I call Andrew and he confirms which mobile it is that I am looking for and says it's definitely $38.  So I head up to the front of the store and find a manager.  The following is the actual conversation that took place between her and I.......

Stacey:  I was wondering why this was priced on the internet as $9 less than it is in the store.  Is that a mistake?

Manager: No.  We have different prices than the website does.  If you want it for that price, you have to order it online.

S:  Why is the price different though?
M:  We're just a different entity so we have different prices.
S:  Hold up.  So if I call my fiance' right now and have him pay for it online, I can take it out of here for $38?
M:  No.  Once it ships we'll let you know you can pick it up.

Let me interrupt this and remind you that I am standing here holding the mobile in my hands.  It's not a picture of a mobile....the actual thing.  The very one this woman is telling me I can have shipped to the store.  I literally look down at this box and then back up at the manager in a manner which may or may not have conveyed the words "Are you shitting me?" 

S:  This mobile right here?  The one in my hands?  You're telling me that I have to go home, order it, and then wait for it to come in so that I can save $9 dollars?  You know you have 10 of them sitting on your shelf right? 
M:  Ma'am, it's a totally different inventory and they get different prices so yes.  You have to wait on it to ship.

At this point I am about to have a massive coronary.  I'm tired.  I haven't had a good nights sleep in 3 months and I want this f-cking mobile.  But I am NOT not paying $47 for it on general principle.  $9 will buy me at least one bottle of cheap wine and a pack of Unisom.  I won't do it.

S:  Okay, let me try this another way.....You said Walmart.com is a separate entity right?  So you could technically say they're a competitor right?  You know all those commercials you're running that say you'll match a competitiors advertised price?  Well guess what.....
M:  I know what you're saying but there's nothing I can do.
S:  Is there someone else you can ask?

So she pages another manager.  I'm sitting there staring her down, about to fill her in on my plan to chew off every appendage currently attached to her body unless she gives me the damn mobile at the price I want it for.  After 5 minutes of waiting for this other manager to come (they never show), she finally either feels sorry for me or she realizes I am not playing around and takes me to a register where she promptly adjusts the price.

Mason is sound asleep in his crib.

I win.