Instinct

The other night Kelly and I went shopping for some things she needed for the new place. We started off at Wal-Mart and had to leave there before one of us passed out and the other started pelting strangers with tiny chocolate bars. The store is under renovations. They’ve nearly doubled it’s size, or so it seems, and added a full grocery store. In the mean time, the rest of the store is a mess and nothing is where it should be. We spent what seemed like eternity looking for just three or four items, all the while being blasted with horrible early 70’s soft rock crap screeching from lousy overhead speakers. Kelly finally had enough and said we should have gone to Canadian Tire.

Brilliant idea. We left in a hurry before anyone got hurt. For you Americans, I’m not sure I can explain Canadian Tire effectively. Think of Target meets auto-parts, and give it some Canadian-ness.  It’s another of our Canadian icons, like Tim Horton’s, only I don’t expect Canadian Tire to expand into the US, ever.

So once there, we found an employee (try that at Wal-Mart) and asked where to find the small step ladders. Without even thinking she said. “aisle 46” It was quicker than a Google search. We contemplated asking her for other stuff, just for fun.

Having found a few other items along the way, Kelly settled on a nice two-step ladder that was priced the same as Wal-Mart, but was more to her liking and better quality.  The price was $24.95, or something similar, and this seemed reasonable.

Once we got in the van, Kelly told me that she was surprised at the total cost of everything she bought. I hadn’t been paying attention, so she informed me it totaled almost $80.00. It seemed to her that this was way too high, there must be a mistake. Now, I should know better than to ignore Kelly’s gut feelings. But I shrugged it off and said, “well, you know, things just add up fast”. Half way home I realized she was visibly upset. I almost pulled the van over so we could check the receipt, but it was late and we were both tired.  I’m sure you know where this is going. When we got to her place and checked the receipt, she had been charged almost $45.00 for the ladder, and it was listed as a “3-step” ladder, the next model up.

We returned to the store the next night, and after having an employee run back and forth, they confirmed what we had suspected. The wrong bar code label was on the 2-step ladders. As a bonus, the ladder was now on sale, so they gave Kelly the new price, $14.95, a full $30 dollar off what she had been charged plus some taxes back too. I decided not to complain about their mistake costing us time and gas.

But before we went back to Canadian Tire, we went out for dinner. We had decided we would try the new Japanese placed that recently opened nearby. When the time came to head out, we both had a bad feeling about trying this place. No real reason, just, meh. I drove very slowly up my street as we tried to think of somewhere else to go. By the time we got to the main intersection, we chose to go against our gut feeling, and try the new place anyway.  We are so glad we did!! It was fantastic. I won’t go on about it too much, Kelly will be blogging about it, but the food was great and the price was very reasonable. Finally a good Japanese restaurant, and nearby to boot.

After the previous night, I swore I would never ignore Kelly’s gut feelings again, and yet the very next night, we went against both our instincts, and were rewarded wonderfully.  Mind you these were both trivial situations. Our instincts often guide us in much more serious circumstances. But do we trust our gut? Should we? Do you?