$36.75 worth of trouble at Target

I dropped the kids off at church tonight at 6:15 which gave me the perfect amount of time to go to Target to buy groceries. I carefully kept an eye on my watch the whole time I was there and I arrived at the checkout at precisely 7:30 in order to leave by 7:45 to pick them up by 8. Groceries scanned--check, groceries bagged--check, groceries in the cart--check, debit card inserted into machine--check, coupons deducted--not check. Somewhere about halfway through my stack of coupons the computer froze. Then my total and everything they had just scanned disappeared. So I pull my overflowing cart to another lane, opened just for me, and unload $250 of groceries, recheck and resack. I'm no longer on time. It's 8:00 and I haven't even left the parking lot yet. I did have a small temptation to say "don't worry about the coupons" since that is what freaked the computer out the first time, but I had quite a stack--$36.75 worth. (Yea Me!)

Those of you who know me well will be proud to know I handled the situation with grace and politeness and repeated comments like: 'Don't worry about it; it's not your fault.' Very un-Sharon like. I didn't even roll my eyes once. The guy in charge of the check lanes, whom I know to call the GSTL (guest services team lead) from my Target days, came over to offer me a discount for the trouble. He typed in $6. How he came up with that number I don't know. It seems very random. He probably thought he was giving me 10% off but because he's a guy and doesn't shop for a family of 6 and can't comprehend spending the kind of money we spend on food, he was clueless. And for that we will forgive him. One day he'll be old and married with a housefull of little munchkins and realize his mistake.