Works Every Time On Idiots

 Rish and I were complaining to each other on the phone the other day about the removal of the price checker machines from Walmarts. They used to be everywhere. Every store had six or seven of them attached to pillars throughout the store. Often they were broken, and you'd have to walk a lot farther than you wanted to find one that worked, but one day, rather than fix the price checkers, they simply removed them all.

Now they expect you to use their app. You can check a price on the app when in the store...but it is only correct once in a million years. Usually what you get quoted is higher even than the original price posted on the peg, and definitely isn't a clearance price like you suspected. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do if you suspect the price is wrong is to take it up to the register and check it there.

Rish suspects that they did this on purpose, because most people will just buy whatever it is anyway, even if it rang up for a much higher price than they'd hoped. It's better than the embarrassment of walking away from a sale because you're too cheap to pay the asking price, right? It's funny, because there's no reason not to walk away, but I suspect that Rish is right, and most of us simply wouldn't.

Case in point, this past week, I decided that I wanted to buy the vintage version of the GI Joe Classified Gung Ho figure. I already had the original version they put out a few years ago, but the modernized look to the guy just wasn't making me happy. They've started a new line where they make the figures match as closely to the original figures from the '80s, and I think I prefer that.

Those figures have started to go on clearance now, because Walmart ordered a crap ton of the first wave, which consisted of a vintage Baroness and a vintage Lady Jaye. Nobody really wanted those figures. The vintage Lady Jaye was almost indistinguishable from the regular release they'd done of Lady Jaye only a few months earlier. The Baroness figure wasn't substantially different from the previous release they'd done of her as well, although she'd been much harder to find originally, so some people still needed to purchase her figure.

With six Lady Jayes and six Baronesses on the pegs at every store, there wasn't any room for the later waves in the series, and the vintage waves haven't sold so well. The second wave included Gung Ho and Destro. The third wave was Storm Shadow and a Crimson Guard. I saw a few Gung Hos and Destros, but never encountered Storm Shadow or a vintage Crimson Guard. 

After more than a year, Walmart has finally decided to clear them out. I wasn't sure, however if they were all on clearance or just that first wave of the Baroness and Lady Jaye. At my local Walmart, there was one Gung Ho. If I could get it for the clearance price then that would be a big win for me. However, when I tried to use the app, I couldn't tell if I was getting the right price. Was it on clearance or not?

The only choice I had was to take it to the register and check. Well, guess what happened when I did? It rang up as full price...but I just bought it anyway. Rish was right. If an idiot takes something to the register to check it, he'll probably wind up buying it whether it's on sale or not.

So, I am now the proud owner of a vintage Gung Ho.

Moral of the story is just walk away...and if you can't do that, then don't even take it up to check the price.

I do have to admit that I like this new one a lot better than my old one that was made to be more realistic and modern.

I switched them out on my shelf. The old one is in a bin now, but the new one, even though he's wearing teal from head to toe, is up there with my other Joes in a place of honor on the shelf.

There's a vintage version of Scarlett that is about to hit the shelves in April, and I'll have to buy that one and switch out that crappy one I have now. I really hate that one. You can tell, because I even swapped the head out for a Black Widow head in an attempt to make it more palatable. didn't work. Scarlett's outfit is all wrong too. Once I get that one, I might be done...although it's possible I might get the vintage Duke as well. The one I have up there isn't bad, but it's not great either.