butters&beans: These boots are made for...

After working in retail for half of my life, not too much irritates me more than terrible customer service or all around bad retail business practice. I can't even count the number of times I've walked out of a store without buying something simply because I thought the customer service was terrible. I'll do all the stores in the Twin Cities a favor and not name names (for today, anyways).

Yesterday I ventured out to the Mall of America, which is a rarity for me. One, I hate crowds. Two, there aren't many stores there that are worth dealing with the crowds, parking or generally stupid people that tend to frequent the Mall of America. Three, I've managed more than my share of MOA stores, and don't have any interest in spending any more time there. Ever. Work one holiday season at MOA and you'll feel the same way.

Nordstrom Rack is one of maybe three stores I'll venture out to MOA to visit. I'm a TOTAL sale shopper. Those of you that know me know that I find amazing deals on all of my designer stuff. I've never cared about what's on trend or who says I need to wear what. I wear what I like, and I couldn't care less if it's from last season, last year or five years ago. Probably six out of seven days of the week I'm at home in sweats or yoga pants anyways.

I've been searching for brown knee-high boots for two weeks to go with an outfit my mother-in-law sent me for Christmas - a super cute Benetton sweater dress and brown leggings (fyi I have the awesomest MIL ever). Tonight we have reservations at Manny's, so yesterday was my last day to find the boots if I wanted to wear the outfit.

So of course I find THE cutest boots EVER at Nordstrom, and to top it off they have a little red sticker on the bottom of the boot that says 50% off (and 50% off the sale price, no less). Effing sweet, right?

I'm all stoked, and get in line to pay.

"These boots are actually not on sale".

Ummmmm, what?

"But they're marked 50% off...".

"Yes, but they shouldn't be". (as she is peeling the sticker off with her fingernails)

"This is basic retail - you can't mark something 50% off and then charge me more...".

"But they were mismarked".

"But they say 50% off".

"Yes, but they were mismarked".

"But they say 50% off".

This conversation, the same sentences, were repeated about eight or ten times. I think she finally realized I had allllll day to have this conversation, and called her manager, who ultimately approved the discount. Mama got $400 boots on double markdown for $65. Yea for me and my new hot boots. :)