Hunting for night lights
Frances and I undertook finding all the white or clear large night lights we could yesterday. I got on line at Wal Mart.com and searched for stores within 50 mile radius of us. We had already drove to the next nearest town and came up empty one night last week. I took the item number from sales receipt for the white night light and called 4 stores and ask them if they could tell me if they showed to have any of those in the store.
First you would think this would be as simple as someone typing in the number and telling you the answer. At some stores it was that easy, while at others the person at the customer service counter couldn't do it, and had to get a "member of management". Once they finally came to the phone then, they had to get to a computer or handheld to enter the number, so again you are put on hold. Some want to know what it is you are asking about, then before you can explain after telling them a LED night light you are put on hold waiting for someone from "that department" to answer the phone. You MIGHT get a answer, or you might not. After we started our trip to the first store, I had Frances call the dummy's back while I drove. She simply ask for a member of management with no explanation given and we seemed to get answers faster.
We drove a little over 200 miles going to 4 stores within 50 miles of us. The first store told me they had 1 white light, and they were the first we drove to - about 25 miles away. When we finally found the lights (at the isle the other night lights were on) we found 3 white lights and 19 others of various colors, and took them all. The second store about 40 miles away said they had 6 white lights so we felt pretty good that we would do good there. We found 7 colored lights and no white ones at the end of the isle the night lights were on. We walked to the "domestic" dept and searched every isle and found nothing. We got a lady to help us, and she took us to the hardware section (where we found the colored lights) to see the person over that department. When we found him, and spoke to him, he walked to the area the night lights were in and of course couldn't find what we wanted. I told him the colored ones were hanging at the end of the isle, and when he saw them he quickly said they were NOT in his department, but in domestics - even though they were hanging at the end of the isle that was in his department. We found a lady at the gun counter and ask her to again check the number for us. It said again, 6 lights in dept. 20 - where the sheets and so on are. We had already looked there once, but hey, maybe we BOTH missed them, so we walked back and looked again. The lady came just as we finished and she also looked - nothing. They could be on the clearance isle as they are no longer being stocked or reordered, so she took us 1/3 across the store and there we found 6 white LED night lights of a completely different style - and item number. So we drove to this store for nothing. We chose to leave the 7 colored lights as we already got 19 at the other store, and really wanted just to find the white or clear ones.
We drove to the next store now, about 20 miles away, but now headed back toward "home". There we found several colored lights but no white ones, so we left for the last store about 50 miles south. There they said they had 6 white lights and in fact we found 7 and several colored ones which again we left and just took the white ones. This little road trip took us about 7 hours to complete for 29 lights, to go with the other various colored ones we still had at home. Here is what I learned from the trip.
You should call the stores before you go if you can give them the item number(s) they can tell you if they even SHOULD have them. Some of the stores did not show the item number when they checked it, meaning they no longer carry them at that store. 2 of the stores we called did not show them, so we only drove to the ones that told us they had them. Remember because they tell you they have some, doesn't make it so! The lady that helped us at the second stop said they probably had been stolen, and although they show having them, they like had been stolen as if they had been sold they wouldn't show them as being in stock. Also remember they can be in the hardware area with other night lights or domestic with sheets and towels. There seems to be no certain place for them, they can be in either location. Lastly you are looking for a specific item, and everyone you talk to will transfer you to someone else, or be pretty much no help at all. Of 4 stores we did our own hunting and looking in all 4, ask for help in one store and of the 3 people that we spoke too, only one of them really tried to help us find what we wanted. The other two couldn't get rid of us quick enough. So you should plan on being on your own with pretty much no usable help if you ask for it.
We have sold several of these and felt it would be worth having more just in case we could sell they. As we use clear acrylic to do photo's on, the ones that are pink,blue, yellow, etc really doesn't matter as we take those panels out anyway and don't use them. I may dig into this further by contacting Wal Marts home office or not; I haven't decided if it will be worth the trouble yet or not. We seem to have hit on a popular item in these, especially now at Christmas; but that may dry up when the holiday is over, only time will tell I guess.
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