The Wrong End Of A Double Standard
I just love Bubba's. He has good prices, and I would never miss his big once-a-year charity clothing sale. You won't believe what he almost gives away. But something was different this year.
Prices were higher than before, and the children's clothes were in room all by themselves. Bubba even had a lady stationed in that room... like he didn't trust us. She followed us around, saying, "You're limited this year. Don't embarrass yourself by taking too many."
She made me very uncomfortable and was so pushy. I asked what was going on. "People took too much last year." I thought Bubba wanted to clear out old stock.
I confessed to buying cute things for my grandchildren, even though I don't have grandchildren yet. That wrankled her. "You bought outfits and don't have grandchildren?"
Bubba uses volunteers so he can funnel more proceeds to charity. I overheard two of them: "I didn't find much tonight that I wanted. But that's OK, 'cause I loaded up while I was sorting boxes." Sure enough, the back of her Cadillac was filled with boxes.
The next day I tried to confirm my suspicions. "May I ask you a question? When you work as a volunteer, do you get to pick out clothes at the sale, or before?" She explained, "Oh, I just pick them out as I go through the boxes days before the sale."
I politely inquired, "Is there a limit for you?" "No, I can take all I want."
Then she tried to explain the new policy. "This year we raised prices on everything, especially the children's clothes, so we can make more money. And well we should have. We were selling them too cheap. Yep. Last year some people bought five box loads. You know they were dealers or were going to resell them to dealers. That's bad."
I had bought five boxes last year--and am saving them all for my grandchildren. I wasn't trying to be evil. I don't think they stopped to think that most people were there simply looking for good deals. But the good deals were absent this year.
The pushy lady went on. "By limiting amounts we can make sure low-income families get their pick, too. Those little low-income children deserve clothes as much as anyone."
If they were so worried about these little low-income children, I wonder why they didn't donate the clothes they took without limit before the sale. I wonder why it was okay for that lady to fill the back of her Cadillac.
"Yep. It's a good thing we raised those prices... I wonder why so few people came to the sale this year?"
Copyright 2000 James McAlister
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