Insanity* (Or, How I Spent an Entire Morning At Freds)

Sunday we drove by our local Fred's store and noticed a big double-wide trailer in the parking lot with a sign on it that said "Fred's Pharmacy." Baffled, we did a drive-by for a closer look and found signs on the front of the store saying everything in the store was 50% off as part of their store rebuilding sale.

I need to take a minute here to point out that if you've ever been inside the Clinton Fred's, you know exactly what that means. If you haven't, let's just say the foundation is so broken that there are warning signs up in the store to watch your step as you walk to the far end of the store. It's literally on another level than the rest of the store!

So it was a happy surprise to see them finally doing something about the condition of the building, and even happier that were having a sale. Woohoo! I love a store closing clearance. Unfortunately, it was Sunday evening and they were closing, but I made a mental note to go back later in the week. (Which is no help when you keep losing your mental notes!)

Monday and Tuesday I was without transportation. Wednesday I was too crazy busy to even think about it. This morning, I left the house with the intent of going by Freds, then hitting the grocery store before going to pick up Greg for lunch. I was naive. And I never made it Kroger.

First, Fred's sale was down to 75%. Second, they were nearly cleaned out. The new 75% off sign said they were open until the 20th. They won't make it that long with what's left. BUT I did find several toys that were good deals, so I grabbed them and got in line. I should have known better when there were only two registers open and both had lines. And both had people with multiple buggies of things... I chose the line with the fewest buggies, although in hindsight I should have chosen the line with the buggies that had fewer items.


Yes, that buggy is loaded with cigarettes. You really have to click on it to enlarge to get the full effect. And the one behind it is loaded with beef jerky. The one in front of it was loaded with candy. And I didn't realize at the time that all of those buggies plus two more all belonged to the same people. The guy kept roaming around and coming back with more cases of crap - scotch tape, peeps, other snacks... The poor cashier had to stop and make them pay after every 100 or so items because the register wouldn't take anymore on one transaction and she had to ring up each thing individually. To their credit, I found out through the hour long conversation that they own a bar. The guy behind me didn't:

I guess cheap cigs are something to get excited about. Blech. So yes, I stood in line behind that one bar-owning couple for an hour. For the record, the other line wasn't moving much faster and I probably only waited an extra 5 minutes from the choice. Geezum peetes it was crazy. A fight nearly broke out behind me when one guy didn't realize the buggy of cigs belonged to somebody and started taking packs out of it. When he found out they were all for one guy he got mouthy about it and things started getting ugly. Thankfully they calmed down right as the bar-couple finished up and we were getting out of there!

So was it worth it? I ended up with $121 worth of stuff for about $26. None of it was woohoo urgent stuff, mostly just a few toys (some baby gift toys) and the one thing that kept me in line...


A $5 Pillow Pet unicorn. A couple of months ago she found one in Best Buy and picked it up and carried it all over the store. I wasn't about to pay $20 for a gimmicky stuffed animal for a 1 year old, so we didn't let her keep it. But for $5, she can have one.

And the point of this entire post is to say that I have the most awesome kid ever. We stood in line, literally, I timed it, for AN HOUR. She sat in the buggy the whole time, playing with some 25 cent notepads I picked up. FOR AN HOUR. No crying. No whining. No fussing. Just playing with the notepads, mocking the other people in line, looking around, and making faces at me. My patience was coming to an end, and I'm an adult, but my 1 year old was a trooper. And she didn't even know about the unicorn in the buggy! She's amazing. When she wants to be.

*By insanity, I'm referring to myself, not the crazy people surrounding me.