Ross Is Always Saving Me Money

They did it again. This is like the fourth or fifth time in the past couple of months that Ross has saved me money like this. It's probably not the way that they want to brag about saving me money, though. They convinced me not to spend money that I was completely ready to part with.

I'd found a few toys on their shelf that I thought would be cool to have, and they had them at a great price. So, I went over to get into the line. I went to the spot where the line usually begins, it was pretty long and wasn't moving quickly, but I had some extra time, so I could probably handle the wait. I had to get on the road to work, but I'd left early today.

Then I realized, that I wasn't in the back of the line. I looked to the right, and saw about a dozen more people waiting. They'd left a little gap so that customers passing through the aisle could get past without everyone having to move.

I had to go around and find the actual back of the line. I did leave early, though, so I could probably handle it, as long as the line moved at a reasonable pace.

I found the back, and joined the line. I waited for about fifteen minutes, then started getting antsy. My extra time had evaporated.

This keeps happening to me at Ross. It didn't use to be part of the experience, but it has become typical. They either have a way higher demand on their products or a way lower supply of workers. Probably a little of both. The line was gargantuan, getting near the back of the store, but there were only two cashiers, and that was not changing.

This was what was in front of me:

And I'd already waited through this part that was behind me:

I had begun this all the way back where that woman you can barely see is at the very back of the line.

I realized that this wasn't going to work. I wouldn't make it to the front until I was already supposed to be at work at this rate, and I had a 45 minute commute still to make. So, for about the fifth time in recent weeks, I went back to the toy section and put the figures I was going to buy back, and left the store with my money still in my pocket.

Thanks, Ross. You really know how to save people money--making the process of spending it at your store too arduous to endure.

It keeps happening, so I wonder what the deal is. My guess is that it is two fold. Now that inflation is so out of control, people are looking for a place with low prices to buy things from, so there's probably a lot more folks in the store. 

Then the other half is that with inflation, wages need to rise to keep workers in their jobs. I'm guessing that Ross is unwilling to raise the wage for their cashiers, and so they can't find people who are willing to work there.

I guess they have to keep their costs low to keep their prices low. It's a trade off, though. How many others like me are out there, who keep finding that their time is worth more than the stupid bargain crap they're wasting their money on at Ross? How much money are they losing? Probably not enough, or this wouldn't keep happening to me over and over.

Maybe I need to stop going there...