since I found double duvet covers are generally very hard to find here, and if they have them in stock, they usually cost a fortune…
It seems to me in Slovakia people have not discovered this form of partner intimacy – and even if they are married for over 30 years and sleeping in the same bed, they take pride in having their very own single duvet, rather than sharing one with their spouse, partner, lover, or just whoever. They are also quite suspicious when you reveal that you actually just have one double duvet yourself.
Once we were extremely lucky to find one, and just for 24.99 – what a catch! Bringing it to the cashier she looked at as with distrust:
- But this is just one double duvet cover – it is not a set of two!!!
- We know! we nodded happily
- Is that what you have? (undisguised contempt)
- Yes… (cautiously, unsure whether we should feel ashamed for such a perversion)
But I am digressing – on this particular Sunday, since we also received a small booklet of various coupons, we decided to give it a try and make a trip to TESCO warehouse at 48 Štefánikova tr. in Nitra.
Quite surprisingly, we were almost the only customers in the whole warehouse, or rather almost the only people, as we discovered the shop assistants were also very hard to find. What we also couldn’t find were most of the special offers and deals mentioned in our leaflet. Looking in quite a messy display of bedding we could only locate single duvet covers and almost nothing discounted. Finally I spotted the long-desired-for yellow discount prize tag with the prize 12.59, exactly as in the leaflet, under a pack of double duvet covers. Who cares I had to crawl on the ground to get them from a shelf in the level of the floor behind a pillar – for such a bargain!
What puzzled me however; the yellow discount prize tag read “big towel” not “double duvet cover”. I was confused – did they just print a wrong name of the item in a haste to display the discounts or have they (as if) accidentally placed a prize tag of a different item for shoppers just quickly looking for the discounted stuff, hoping they wouldn’t realize the discrepancy in prize once they come to the cashier with trolley full of shopping? I was determined to find out.
Looking for a shop assistant wasn’t easy. We circled the whole floor twice with no luck. Just when we decided we will wait in the queue and ask the cashier for a prize check before paying did we find one. I asked her whether she could kindly check the prize of this item for me:
-You have to go for that over there! (pointing to the very cashier’s desk and started moving in that direction herself).
Happy that she is going to help us I followed her only to find she was ignoring me totally, casually chatting with the cashier about some change she needed to get later on. After she finished doing whatever she was set out to do when I stopped her (going through some items in the till and surrounding drawers with a speed of an injured snail) she decided she can spare some time to serve customers and shouted – “Next!”
I approached her gratefully only to be told the prize of the duvet cover in question was 29.99. Since we just came to the shop to buy the duvet cover I decided for this time not to let it go and inquired where I can find the discounted ones.
- The discounted are only the ones with yellow prize tags!
-I looked for them, but they were none besides this one, which obviously doesn’t seem to be on discount, I explained patiently.
- I would like to know where are the ones from the leaflet…? (hopefully)
- Maybe something else was supposed to be discounted! (sternly)
- Well as you see in our leaflet here – It is exactly this duvet cover in the picture and for a cheaper prize! (I am pointing at the picture, but she does not waste her time looking there)
- They can check the prize for you only on Monday, she shouts leaving the till not ever looking back. (Here I would like to point out that Sunday 31st was of course the last day of the special offer)
Well, although we were a bit discouraged for the shopping trip we took in vain, we decided to at least buy some cat food, which was on discount on the 2nd floor next to the stationery. At least we’ll not come home empty handed and we still had a voucher for double TESCO points to spend on Easter shopping.
The shop assistant scans the cat food and I give her the voucher. She looks at it with distrust, without even touching it as if it were something contagious and inquires me:
-Isn’t this just for food shopping?
-We don’t think so, both of us reply looking at it – it just says here “for your Easter shopping”.
-Well I don’t think you can use it, says the cashier looking at me as if she was suspecting me of wanting to trick her into revealing her secret bank information.
-Why don’t you just try running it through the till and see what happens? I suggest.
-She ponders upon the suggestion, hesitating if indeed I am not trying to trick her into something, but finally gives it a try.
-You cannot use it here! (victoriously) The till does not take it at all! It is only for food shopping!!! (now she is righteously angry for dealing with such a con artist as myself trying to make her give out double points just like that)
This just does it for my enthusiasm about shopping for bargains in TESCO I crumple the voucher and seeing no bin around leave it on the counter for the cashier to dispose of it as she pleases and start to depart.
-This is still yours!!! She shouts at me sternly.
So I have to come back, pick it up and put it in my pocket – no littering in her area – dah!
Humiliated, unsure of what just happened and on the verge of depression we leave the warehouse completely forgetting to ask whether the cat food is not after all food too!
