Why I hate Future Shop.

Well, not really. But right now a little bit.

Tomorrow is Marc's and my 5th wedding anniversary. The running joke for me and anniversaries is saying "Aaah... 7 years of wedded bliss..." to my brother and sister-in-law who celebrated their 9th anniversary this year -- so for Marc and I it's about 3 years (only slightly literally -- maybe 3.5).

I told Marc I had some errands to do today. He asked if I was going shopping in quite a disgusted tone. And I said "No?!" with enough intonation that he knew I meant yes. "For what?" then followed. "Nothing." He asked again. I told him I was getting him his present. For a moment he thought I was talking about his Father's Day present that I keep mentioning to him, but have yet to give to him (it's more of a fall present -- so I'm making him wait. In the meantime I'm having great fun telling him that every ridiculously expensive thing that he sees and takes any interest in is his Father's Day present -- computers, houses, cars, anything. It's really quite fun.). Then he clued in and said "we're not getting each other presents are we?" I said nothing.

We usually just do one big purchase in the year and have that be our birthday/Christmas/anniversary present for each other. But we haven't done that for a year or two. And we never actually do a gift exchange. I usually come running into the house with his present, and even if it's a month or two before the occasion I tell him he can have his present and insist that he open it. And he usually just lets me go shopping, as my present. Well, this year I wanted it to be different. I was going to go to Future Shop, get his present, wrap it up all nice, get him a card (maybe even for the proper occasion -- will post on this later), and give it to him at Amy's as we have our nice romantic dinner out.

I wasn't quite sure what I was going to get him from Future Shop, but I had some ideas. One of which was a really good digital camera -- an almost professional one, that you could add lenses, etc. to. I hadn't thought I would buy it, but thought I'd give him something else and some money so that we could start saving for one. Well, of course they had a nice display model which has been surpassed by this year's model, so it was really cheap. I asked them if that's their best price. The guy said that he could maybe get $20 off. He does the usual call, leave the desk, talk to the manager, wait for the manager to call back, look for the manager who's taking a long time, and then finally talk to the manager at the desk. Well, it turns out they'd give me $100 off. I essentially said I would take it without actually saying those words, and he started looking for all of the stuff that goes with it.

And that's how I spent 40 minutes of my day standing at the Future Shop camera counter. Although I must say it was a great study on "women in environments completely foreign to them". About 3 women came looking at cameras or memory cards and they were all exactly the same: serious, intent look on their face, scanning from model to model, touching one, looking at another, picking one up that looks interesting, pretending they have a hot lick what any of them do, looking up desperate for someone to come and help them, but keeping that serious look on their face and keeping busy touching memory cards in plastic packaging until someone does.

So I was all ready to surprise Marc with a kick-ass anniversary present that he'd be totally surprised about, and then the guy tells me that he can't find the lens cap. He spends 20 minutes going through bins of misc. cords, discs, etc from under the counter looking for it, going into the back room, coming back, going back, etc., etc., etc. No luck. Then at some point he realizes that there's no battery pack/charger or battery. And there went the other 20 minutes. A few other employees have joined the hunt, and finally two employees and the manager come to me and tell me that they can't find the battery, though the charger has been found, "but we do sell them individually, and there is one in the attachment kit that you're also buying". So I said, "well, can I get one of those... thrown in?!"

And here we go with the standard line employees are told to tell customers at exactly 35 minutes into the haggling process. "Well, we're already giving it to you at cost", with that really icy, awkard look in their eye that says "we're not going lower!" and "it would make me fe-eal we-ally we-ally bad wif you asked me that again ". So I knew not to push it, at least with the manager. Usually I use my ease and humour to cut the bartering tension, but I could tell that wasn't going to work.

Now does this make sense to anyone? 5 minutes before I had a camera with everything I would need. Now all of a sudden I'm paying the same price for a camera that doesn't come with a battery?!

In the end, the guy who first helped me was going to give me a brand-new lense (with a cap). And I told him, I'd rather contact Canon and pay for a lens cap and have Future Shop throw in the battery for free. He of course didn't think the manager would do that. (Ya, I figured that.) I also wanted to say that "maybe if you didn't give away lenses from other cameras, you wouldn't lose so many of the pieces for your other cameras". So I told him I'd talk to my husband (there goes the surprise!) and be back. I asked if I could write down the model of the camera. And now he doesn't even have a pen for me to use! So I left. Disappointed for a number of reasons.

And when I showed Marc the camera on the internet he looked at it awe-struck and said "so you're getting me that, and I'm getting you..." "A plush toy, I know", I retorted. "$50 to spend whereever you want" was what it actually was. I told him to go to Future Shop and take a look at it, but now I don't even care. Now all the romantic notions of surprising him with the gift and having a nice meal have vanished. (Well, I guess we can still have a nice meal.) But, now the other things I had thought I'd get him seem so lame compared to the "silver tuna" of all anniversary presents. Oh well... he'll probably walk in the door in a few minutes with the camera under his arm after going to look at it at Future Shop. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

THIS JUST IN: No camera under his arm. And apparently he feels as sad and depressed as I do. Read his version of it.