Being bold

We went to the mall last night (which wasn't as busy as I thought it would be), and while we were there, I decided to take a peek in The Children's Place and see if they were having any good sales. In the back of my mind, I was also hoping to find a Christmas dress for Ari. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, though--especially since she'd probably only be wearing the dress once.

Almost immediately, my eyes fell on this dress, and it was love at first sight.



There were only a few left, and as luck would have it, there was a 3T. As always, the first thing I did was to check the price. It was originally $29.50, marked down to $19.99. A salesgirl working nearby also told us that all sale items were an additional 30% off. Which made this lovely dress about $13.99. I was sold--that was a good price for a dress this pretty.

As I examined the dress, I found several little strings sticking out in various places. I tugged on all of them--a few came out, and others stayed, but none seemed to be a serious defect. And since I loved it so much, I knew I would end up buying it. I even found a cute pair of tights (white, with little red roses scattered on them), which were also on sale, to go with the dress.

When I got to the counter, I did something I normally never do. I assumed my kindest, most I'm-not-a-nasty-customer-I swear expression and told the cashier. "Look, I really love this dress, and this is the only one you have left in this size, but I noticed there's a lot of little strings hanging out." I pointed out a few to her as I continued. "I don't suppose you could maybe give me any extra discount on it?" I asked almost apologetically, figuring she would say no.

But she called her manager over and asked him. He took a quick look at the dress, shrugged and said, "Yeah, give her 30%."

I fought to remain cool and casual, but I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe, at best, they'd give me another 10%. I never would have expected 30%. So the dress rang up at $13.99, with an extra $4.20 taken off, which made the grand total... less than $10. (Yeh, I'm too lazy to do the math).

So the moral of the story here is... never be afraid to ask kindly for an extra discount, because you never know...