Where I go...judging books by cover
Spending a Saturday driving around in search of the perfect – wait for it – desk...hardly registers as top of my weekend wish-list and so it turned out to be when just a few days ago, I hit the road, with family in tow, to find an office desk that ticked all the boxes.
It had to be the right colour wood that matched existing furniture. Its measurement also had to be precise, wide enough but not of the doubling-up-as-a-single-bed width that sticks out too much; deep enough to comfortably accommodate the desktop computer and keyboard.
It’s a tricky balance…and we spent much of the day shop hopping between the respected retail stores, internet surfing in the car between shops and generally having an all-out frustrating, nothing is perfect day.
We look at our watches, it’s approaching the 5.00pm closing time and being tired and disillusioned, it doesn’t take long for us to reach the unanimous decision of calling it a day and heading home.
We’re trundling along bemoaning the experience when we pass a large store that I have neither seen nor heard of before.
Hubby gets a late spurt of enthusiasm and suggests we drop in but I laugh in his face, telling him there is Buckley’s chance we’ll find what I’m looking for in that gaudy place, with a bright blue fa?ade and rather tasteless neon branding.
We drive past, but the search still occupies a large part of our heads so after dinner and washing up, we flop down on the sofa, fire up the laptop and set about internet surfing.
Minutes later, hubby rather smugly leans over and points to the screen, where the perfect item stares back at me in all its glory.
“Wow” is the only response I’m able to give.
“I really like that, where is it?”
“At the tacky neon shop,” hubby says with poorly disguised glee.
Fifteen hours later, I’m marching into the ‘tacky neon shop’ and am hugely impressed. Everything I’ve bought from the large retailers over the past year is there on the showroom floor…and at a seriously discounted price.
I find the perfect desk, along with the perfect bar stools that I have also been fruitlessly searching for. I’m delighted.
And there’s also a lesson learnt – I’d long lived by the ‘not judging a book by its cover’ maxim but having spent the last year heading up brand and reputation for a few organisations, I have tended to change my tune.
I should have stuck to my roots – on principle and financial grounds – as the store had a 20% sale on the Saturday in question…and today it cost me $160 more!
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