BBW ramble and rant
Jun. 12th, 2018 06:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyI braved the BBW sale in store yesterday and it was definitely the busiest I've seen the store in awhile. To be fair, I prefer to go when they open because 10am on a weekday is usually not going to be swamped. Alas, yesterday's visit was much closer to noon and you had people who were obviously on their lunch break or tourists breathing a sigh of relief that there was finally something actually open in our current wasteland of a mall.
I was immediately reminded why I prefer to go when there's no one around. It's not often I can take one look at someone and know, beyond a shadow of doubt before they open their mouth, that they aren't from here. I also don't usually care because by the strict definitions set out by locals, I am also not from here because my family moved here within the last 100 years. :P Anyway, my greeter and eventual cashier opens her mouth and removes all doubt about her being local and just looking like Jersey, and I swear to God, the entire time I was in the store, she acted like she was in a TV show that needed someone to act the part of the ~cRaZy~ used car salesman making a commercial. You know, stressing how craaaaaazy good the sale was and how craaaaaaaaaaaazy this was and how craaaaaaaaaazy that was. You get the idea. It's like you were there with me, right? Here, have a bag to help get all this product out of this poor woman's way so she'll have room for the next shipment, ok? There, NOW it's like you were shopping with me.
I went in for a couple of things in particular and I set my expectations very, very low. I wanted to see if they had Sweet Cherry Pie in candle form, and yes, I know there was a better sale on candles over the weekend. I also wanted to sniff Sweet Soda Pop (also a candle, but apparently maybe also a wallflower?) and the Almond + Vanilla body care. I wanted to find the Sweet Gardenia and see if it was the scent Mom loooooooooved back in the day and if so, buy some for her. I was also willing to poke around to see if any old fall or winter stuff was around and see if I could find a car scent thing for Cass. Spoiler: I never even found the car stuff at all.
I wandered around the store for awhile, honestly. It takes me awhile to navigate around the various tables and around people and I indulge my "oooh, shiny!" side if I'm not with someone at the store. Since it was busy, I had to make allowances for other people more than I normally would.
As far as I could tell, my store did not have the Summertime Soda pop candle and only had one more of the Banana Split Milkshake and I considered buying it. I ultimately did not because I've got a million candles and I haven't finished a one. I did get to sniff the cannoli one and it really does smell like chocolate goodness but oddly enough, I'm fine with my house smelling like I'm baking cookies 24/7 and I'm willing to give root beer a shot, but chocolate candles don't really appeal to me. It did smell really good though. Eventually I found Sweet Cherry Pie and I was doing my triumphant, "YES!" victory dance in my head and then I sniffed it and I don't get why people fall all over themselves for this? Eh. I found one of those wallflower tester candles for the soda pop and it was also a no, thank you. I tried most of the other candles I could find (the happy birthday pink whatever poundcake was okay but not on sale so I'm only noting it for later) considering I do most of my buying online and it's best to know what I like versus what I think I would like.
I found the gardenia lotion pretty early on and I sniffed it in tube and got no gardenia. At all. I tried it out because sometimes, even early on, your nose fails you. Nope. Nada. It's not a bad scent, it's just... not gardenia. I had mom smell it when I got back to the car and she had the same reaction. Not bad but not gardenia either. The gardenia candle (and probably the wallflower since I sniffed that tester candle, too) are dead on, though. Wasn't a fan of the Almond + Vanilla but it was literally the first thing I tried in the store so I'm not sure if it was simply a pace yourself kind of thing or it just was meh. There's definitely a vanilla something or other that's just Beach Nights repackaged but it wasn't on the super duper sale and I just noted it for later. Did a lot of that, really.
Eventually I found the box of wallflower tester candles they were selling (something I went in for but forgot on the walk to the store) but there were only maybe 8 candles in the box and maybe, maybe four scents. Tis the Season, Cinnamon Caramel Swirl, and at least one other scent I had no interest in at all. Possibly a second no interest. I debated Tis the Season but ultimately only grabbed CCS. This is when I found Sweet Cherry Pie, btw.
Now that I was committed to my little $3 candle, I went around and scrounged up the things I was willing to buy. I grabbed a $3 Twisted Peppermint Wallflower plug as well as a $3 Heirloom Apple plug, a Bourbon Strawberry Vanilla body cream because it smelled so good, and at checkout I snagged a $1 unscented hand cream. Not much. So I was a little startled when my total was $18.48 or something, but the store was busy and I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't grabbed something that wasn't the price I thought it was.
At home I realized I'd been charged twice for my Twisted Peppermint and I really didn't want to go back, so I tried contacting them online. I got the automated "we've received your email, please wait however many business days for a reply" and then maybe an hour later got another email asking me to call. So I did. I gave the lady my information and she looked things up and basically before promising to send me a $5 online gift card (which still hasn't shown up but she did say it could take I think up to 72 hours?) she fussed twice about how once you leave the store they aren't responsible for anything because, y'know, there's no way of knowing if I was lying/took something out of my bag/whatever but as a one time courtesy, she'd do the gift card. I was offered a plastic version to come in the mail or an online one and I (foolishly?) chose the online one. Guess we'll see if I get my gift card or not. I've found that usually BBW is pretty good about making things right but they do occasionally need a followup to do so.
That was a very long ramble, but my visits to BBW usually are because I like to note the stuff I like and the stuff I should avoid. Also? Sad panda about the decided lack of hand soaps. They had some but it was basically nothing I wanted enough to buy. Woe.
eta: The code showed up this morning. Huzzah!
Also, I was sad to see the little food place right next to BBW that Rose and I usually stop at during our birthday visit has finally gone out of business. :(
Swung through Target and found that none of the cute things people have been posting pictures of in the $1 bins were at my store and found that I do not like the new layout of the store at all. It's very difficult to navigate so I'm going to hope that it's something that works better for employees because for customers it's shit. The doll section, btw, was the saddest thing I've seen in awhile. So devoid of anything of interest. Sigh. Didn't buy the cat litter because the lines were horrible at that point (seriously, I prefer to go before the mommy crowd manages to descend) and I didn't want to carry something stupidly heavy and wait in line for one stupid item.
Stopped by Michaels after that and I think they're about to start transitioning to fall. They had pumpkins, but dusty rose pumpkins aren't my thing so I just looked to see if they said autumn (they did) and went on my merry way. I was surprised to see even that much, honestly, because the only stores I've seen pictures of Halloween/fall are Hobby Lobby (and while we finally have one I could, in theory, go to, I don't because Hobby Lobby is on my moral shit list) and At Home. I'm waiting for Cass to hit AH to see if they've got her Zero I promised her.
Finished my outing with a banana milkshake from Cook Out and came home to do my battle with BBW.
Today we have primary elections. On the one hand, vote! On the other hand, I looked at the candidates and for the most part I... can't really tell too much of a difference between them. Also, it's supposed to be storming like crazy about the time I'd be able to make it there, so we'll see. Curse you, traffic. Curse you.
I was immediately reminded why I prefer to go when there's no one around. It's not often I can take one look at someone and know, beyond a shadow of doubt before they open their mouth, that they aren't from here. I also don't usually care because by the strict definitions set out by locals, I am also not from here because my family moved here within the last 100 years. :P Anyway, my greeter and eventual cashier opens her mouth and removes all doubt about her being local and just looking like Jersey, and I swear to God, the entire time I was in the store, she acted like she was in a TV show that needed someone to act the part of the ~cRaZy~ used car salesman making a commercial. You know, stressing how craaaaaazy good the sale was and how craaaaaaaaaaaazy this was and how craaaaaaaaaazy that was. You get the idea. It's like you were there with me, right? Here, have a bag to help get all this product out of this poor woman's way so she'll have room for the next shipment, ok? There, NOW it's like you were shopping with me.
I went in for a couple of things in particular and I set my expectations very, very low. I wanted to see if they had Sweet Cherry Pie in candle form, and yes, I know there was a better sale on candles over the weekend. I also wanted to sniff Sweet Soda Pop (also a candle, but apparently maybe also a wallflower?) and the Almond + Vanilla body care. I wanted to find the Sweet Gardenia and see if it was the scent Mom loooooooooved back in the day and if so, buy some for her. I was also willing to poke around to see if any old fall or winter stuff was around and see if I could find a car scent thing for Cass. Spoiler: I never even found the car stuff at all.
I wandered around the store for awhile, honestly. It takes me awhile to navigate around the various tables and around people and I indulge my "oooh, shiny!" side if I'm not with someone at the store. Since it was busy, I had to make allowances for other people more than I normally would.
As far as I could tell, my store did not have the Summertime Soda pop candle and only had one more of the Banana Split Milkshake and I considered buying it. I ultimately did not because I've got a million candles and I haven't finished a one. I did get to sniff the cannoli one and it really does smell like chocolate goodness but oddly enough, I'm fine with my house smelling like I'm baking cookies 24/7 and I'm willing to give root beer a shot, but chocolate candles don't really appeal to me. It did smell really good though. Eventually I found Sweet Cherry Pie and I was doing my triumphant, "YES!" victory dance in my head and then I sniffed it and I don't get why people fall all over themselves for this? Eh. I found one of those wallflower tester candles for the soda pop and it was also a no, thank you. I tried most of the other candles I could find (the happy birthday pink whatever poundcake was okay but not on sale so I'm only noting it for later) considering I do most of my buying online and it's best to know what I like versus what I think I would like.
I found the gardenia lotion pretty early on and I sniffed it in tube and got no gardenia. At all. I tried it out because sometimes, even early on, your nose fails you. Nope. Nada. It's not a bad scent, it's just... not gardenia. I had mom smell it when I got back to the car and she had the same reaction. Not bad but not gardenia either. The gardenia candle (and probably the wallflower since I sniffed that tester candle, too) are dead on, though. Wasn't a fan of the Almond + Vanilla but it was literally the first thing I tried in the store so I'm not sure if it was simply a pace yourself kind of thing or it just was meh. There's definitely a vanilla something or other that's just Beach Nights repackaged but it wasn't on the super duper sale and I just noted it for later. Did a lot of that, really.
Eventually I found the box of wallflower tester candles they were selling (something I went in for but forgot on the walk to the store) but there were only maybe 8 candles in the box and maybe, maybe four scents. Tis the Season, Cinnamon Caramel Swirl, and at least one other scent I had no interest in at all. Possibly a second no interest. I debated Tis the Season but ultimately only grabbed CCS. This is when I found Sweet Cherry Pie, btw.
Now that I was committed to my little $3 candle, I went around and scrounged up the things I was willing to buy. I grabbed a $3 Twisted Peppermint Wallflower plug as well as a $3 Heirloom Apple plug, a Bourbon Strawberry Vanilla body cream because it smelled so good, and at checkout I snagged a $1 unscented hand cream. Not much. So I was a little startled when my total was $18.48 or something, but the store was busy and I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't grabbed something that wasn't the price I thought it was.
At home I realized I'd been charged twice for my Twisted Peppermint and I really didn't want to go back, so I tried contacting them online. I got the automated "we've received your email, please wait however many business days for a reply" and then maybe an hour later got another email asking me to call. So I did. I gave the lady my information and she looked things up and basically before promising to send me a $5 online gift card (which still hasn't shown up but she did say it could take I think up to 72 hours?) she fussed twice about how once you leave the store they aren't responsible for anything because, y'know, there's no way of knowing if I was lying/took something out of my bag/whatever but as a one time courtesy, she'd do the gift card. I was offered a plastic version to come in the mail or an online one and I (foolishly?) chose the online one. Guess we'll see if I get my gift card or not. I've found that usually BBW is pretty good about making things right but they do occasionally need a followup to do so.
That was a very long ramble, but my visits to BBW usually are because I like to note the stuff I like and the stuff I should avoid. Also? Sad panda about the decided lack of hand soaps. They had some but it was basically nothing I wanted enough to buy. Woe.
eta: The code showed up this morning. Huzzah!
Also, I was sad to see the little food place right next to BBW that Rose and I usually stop at during our birthday visit has finally gone out of business. :(
Swung through Target and found that none of the cute things people have been posting pictures of in the $1 bins were at my store and found that I do not like the new layout of the store at all. It's very difficult to navigate so I'm going to hope that it's something that works better for employees because for customers it's shit. The doll section, btw, was the saddest thing I've seen in awhile. So devoid of anything of interest. Sigh. Didn't buy the cat litter because the lines were horrible at that point (seriously, I prefer to go before the mommy crowd manages to descend) and I didn't want to carry something stupidly heavy and wait in line for one stupid item.
Stopped by Michaels after that and I think they're about to start transitioning to fall. They had pumpkins, but dusty rose pumpkins aren't my thing so I just looked to see if they said autumn (they did) and went on my merry way. I was surprised to see even that much, honestly, because the only stores I've seen pictures of Halloween/fall are Hobby Lobby (and while we finally have one I could, in theory, go to, I don't because Hobby Lobby is on my moral shit list) and At Home. I'm waiting for Cass to hit AH to see if they've got her Zero I promised her.
Finished my outing with a banana milkshake from Cook Out and came home to do my battle with BBW.
Today we have primary elections. On the one hand, vote! On the other hand, I looked at the candidates and for the most part I... can't really tell too much of a difference between them. Also, it's supposed to be storming like crazy about the time I'd be able to make it there, so we'll see. Curse you, traffic. Curse you.