The Dollar Tree Store can be a bit dangerous so I try not to go in there very often. I’ve found it’s very handy for gift bags, tissue paper, helium balloons, and baby shower cards. I made the mistake once of buying some sort of electronic equipment there. Perhaps it was headphones. Regardless, it was broken in time for the next trash day, so that was convenient.
This afternoon I was in search of a small vase for some eventual wildflowers, so I stopped in my local Dollar Tree on my way home. I found exactly what I was looking for, snatched it up, and bee-lined for the register. Predictably, only one was open and it was already four people deep with a conveyor belt filled with bucks-o-treasure. So I had plenty of time to survey the array of impulse items tempting me with the “it’s only $1, why not?” marketing ploy. Among the cigarette lighters, hand sanitizers, mini-flashlights, waxy lip balms, and breath mints, one item in particular captured my attention. There next to the 4-packs of AA batteries was a home pregnancy test.
A home pregnancy test as an impulse item?! “Oh, hey! That’s right --- I might be pregnant. I should get me one of these. Oh, and some Juicy Fruit, too.”
And you know, if I were looking for a pregnancy test, I sure as heck wouldn’t be looking near the register. I’d go to that aisle that smells like baby powder and freshness. I wonder how many anxiety-filled, late women dash out of the Dollar Tree empty handed since they never thought to look next to the puppy dog erasers at the front register?
I also wonder exactly how trustworthy a Dollar Tree home pregnancy test really is? According to Walgreens.com, the standard ones run ya about $6-8 each. I’m not sure a life defining test is really the place to go el cheapo.
I was really tempted to buy a test and try it out at home, just to see what came in the box and what the results were. As I contemplated what Rob’s reaction would be to seeing the empty box in the trash can, I was interrupted by a discussion amongst the women in front of me.
“Oh, there’s sales tax here?” asked she who was obviously from across the river in the Tax Free Land of Oregon. “Let me get my license then.”
Yes, it’s a sore spot among southwest Washingtonians that Oregon residents can flash their driver’s license at cash registers all over our county and avoid paying our less-than-8% sales tax. I suppose it’s meant to give the Portlanders encouragement to do some shopping in our fair state. And sure, Rob and I buy many of our larger purchases over in Oregon to avoid paying sales tax. But it just seems snotty and smug when a fellow shopper in Washington proclaims, “I’m from Oregon” and gets a free ride. They are using our roads to get here, at least let them chip in for their maintenance (and coincidentally, Portland’s road suck.)
So my $1.07 shopping trip was delayed several minutes while the proud Oregonians in front of me were handed a form to fill out so that they would be exempt from paying sales tax on their spices and photo album. A driver’s license check, a form, two signatures, and a recorded receipt number…all to save 33 cents. Perhaps I’m just jealous, but good grief!!
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