Saturday, January 31, 2009

Trying to buy displays

1. I was at Lowe's looking at bead board. It was ugly, like painted fake pine paneling. As I turned the pages of the display I saw something that looked like masonite. Finally, I thought, a nice honest material. I then discovered that what I was looking at was an empty display case.

2. When I was at Hacienda on Colorado, I saw a great rustic cabinet with dozens of drawers used to sell hardware. The guy said it cost "seven" so I thought it was $700 which would not be unreasonable. Of course, it ended up that he was referring to the hardware that sells for $7 a piece and the drawer was not for sale.

3. I was at Ikea looking for something that might make a good range hood. I saw these white metal buckets and a price tag that said $7. That is a great price for the bucket, I thought. Having been burned before I decided this was too good to be true and indeed it was—the $7 was for the flowers inside the bucket and the bucket was part of the display.

4. This whole experience has become so commonplace that I just assume that if I like it, it's not for sale. I was at Habitat for Humanity and found some nice drawers. Yes, they were just the display.

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