Mom and dad's tv blew up this past week. They went a couple places and looked at several models, but decided they wanted me to go look at them too. Today was set aside as "drag Curtis all over the countryside day".
I told them that we should go to Best Buy or Circuit City so they could see all the different models side-by-side. This way they could choose based on features, price and quality of picture and could even play around with settings if they wanted. Off we went. Best Buy had a nice selection. One of the key things they were questioning was what size to buy as the new widescreen format was so different from the 27" tv they've had for the past 20+ years. I took a brochure from one of the displays.. held it up to a standard 27" tv that was on another shelf collecting dust and tore it to the screen height. We then went over to the flat panels and found which screen size was closest in height, the 37 inch ones. Why they wouldn't take the sales guy's word for that is beyond me, but he had told them the same thing.
We found a nice model... but she wouldn't come home with me.. errrr.. I mean... of tv. Mom wasn't sure as usual. She has to question everything she buys. She will find a nice dress or blouse and will drive all over the countryside to find it at other stores cheaper, only to come back to the original store to buy it. The cost of gas these days, she could have bought two and still saved money. Anyway, she and dad both want to go back to Sears and down to the appliance store where they bought their last tv. Ok, so we go.
At Sears, they have a 40" on sale for cheaper than the one they decided on at Best Buy. Its the better model, with a noticably better picture and features. We grab a sales idiot... errr guy. He says he'll have to check stock as that sale ends today and they won't be getting more of those in. He goes away and comes back. They only have the display and on that someone had bought and found that their cabinet was too small. He will give us the 'opened box' one that someone took home for an additional 5% off the sale price. My thoughts "OOOOOOO snatch it up!" That makes it $150 bucks cheaper than the one they wanted at Best Buy... AND.. Its a bigger and better model Best Buy's. Nope. We have to go to the Mom/Pop Appliance store to check their tvs.
We got the the M/P store and they have like 12 tvs total. Over half are small desktop sets. The guy at Sears had called a couple of local stores for another customer but no one else had that model in stock. I expressed that we should go back to Sears and get the 'open box' one. Instead, we had to satisfy their curiosity and go to the Sears store in New Castle first. They didn't have it. They had the model up from it, but it was substantially more expensive as it wasn't on sale.
Guess what!? Yep, they decide to come back to the first Sears to get the 'open box' tv. Its definitely a good price and the best picture quality that we looked at. We get back to the store and the guy says "I'm sorry. I just sold it." I was a little bit torqued but didn't say anything. What really irked me was that my dad always finds these kinds of bargains. He should have known to snatch it up then. No, we had to run all over God's creation spending gas and time. Oh well. I guess now they'll have to shell out the extra money for the other one at Best Buy. One of other sales guys told us as we were preparing to leave .... well... ok.. Mom cornered him to see if there were any other sales going to be starting... that the reason that particular model was selling so well was its quality AND the fact that its Super Bowl time. DOH! There won't be another sale till probably Christmas.
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