Reason #206 To Love Costco (& Costco Employees)

   It all began on Christmas Eve. 

   Generally speaking I make shopping for Christmas presents a year-long affair. Whenever I'm out and about and come across something that I think a member of my gift exchange circle of family and friends would like, I buy it and take it home for storage until Christmas rolls around.

   Incidentally, not all of my family and friends exchange gifts, but those that do, well, we are all part of a gift exchange circle. Everyone else gets a Holiday greeting card.

   Back to Christmas Eve. I had a few friends and associates that I did not manage to procure a gift for during the course of the year, so I had to pay a visit to that vast palace of last resort gifts known as Costco.

   If anything, Costco has it's finger on the pulse of what people need or want or at least could use that would make for a nice gift.

   So there I was on the afternoon of the 24th, shopping away. A couple of bottles of fine wine (Costco has a great selection of fine wines - try the Caymus 50th Anniversary Cab, it's like drinking silk), a few small household items, two bouquets of flowers (for two separate get-togethers that night) and of course, the penultimate in last-minute Christmas gifts, gift cards (for oil changes, dining, and movie theaters).

   The checkout line was long but the wait allowed for a visual inspection of what other last-minute gifts were being bought - a lot of large screen televisions were going out the doors that day.

   An hour later I was at home and wrapping the last minute gifts. I had plenty of large boxes for the gift cards, and a few large scraps of 2 X 6 lumber and packing peanuts to add to the boxes for additional heft - and yeah, I'm the kind of guy that does that sort of thing.

   After getting everything wrapped I sorted the gifts - there was a small pile of gifts that were to be delivered, and a larger pile of gifts that would be opened at my house.

   It was then when I realised I was missing a gift, or rather, a gift card. I pulled the receipt out of my wallet (yeah, I'm a receipt keeper - how the heck else can one reconcile budget with expenses without keeping receipts?) and carefully went over the items...the purchase of the gift card was listed, so I figured I must have left it in the car, easy enough to do with such a small item.

   Back out to the car for a quick look-see. Huh. Cursory examination of the cargo area and rear seats revealed...nada. A more thorough search (under the drivers and front passenger seats, in the little side pockets of the doors, between the seats, in the crevice between the seats and seat backs, the glove compartment, the little secondary glove compartment below the main glove compartment, the center consoles, in the magazine-sized pockets attached to the rear of the drivers and front passenger seats (airplane style)...and still nothing.

   Carefully I retraced my steps for every trip I made from the car to the house to the area I wrapped all the gifts in, and to the areas/cabinets in the kitchen that I put items I purchased for household use/consumption in or on...still nothing.

   Being as I had to get going to a couple of Christmas Eve gatherings, I decided to forestall any further searching until the next day. I felt confident that the missing gift card was somewhere in the house, probably in the guest bedroom that is used as gift wrapping central.

   Christmas morning being what it is meant that I was not able to resume the search until later in the afternoon. I searched everywhere in the guest bedroom, and even the car again, for good measure. 

   Without finding the dang gift card. I know I made the purchase, heck, I had the receipt. It had to be somewhere.

   The intended recipient of the gift came over to the house as I was quietly fuming. After initial Christmas greetings and exchanging of gifts (her husband's and son's gifts) I had to sheepishly confess that I had bought her a gift but I had misplaced it somewhere, and I promised I would get it to her as soon as I could.

   She was her usual wonderfully gracious self and told me it was not a big deal, no worries, whenever it pops up will be fine, don't go out of your way or fret over it...yeah, I felt like an idjit.

   A few days pass and I decide to search the car again. The rear seats pitch forward to allow for more cargo space, so maybe the gift card managed to fall behind one on the seats and into the little tub underneath the cargo cover where the spare tire is stored. 

   Nope. Not there either.

   The next day (New Years Eve) I decide to search the gift wrapping area again. I literally remove everything but the guest bed itself from the room and find...nothing, except a biography of James Madison I'd been meaning to read that I thought I'd left in Fort Dodge last summer.

   Another couple of days pass and I get the idea that it was possible, but maybe not probable, that I did not actually take the gift card with me when I left the Costco. It was one of those gift card dealios for a movie theater chain (Alamo Drafthouse) that was actually four gift cards with a value of $25.00 each, and to get the cards you had to take the receipt for the purchase over to a general merchandise window where a Costco associate hands them over.

   Well, it was Christmas Eve when I made the purchase, and there were a lot of people at the Costco (it was the one in Superior, which is one of my top ten Costco locations). There were a number of people picking up items at the general merchandise window (Jewelry mostly) and the general merchandise window was right next to the food court, and I might have been distracted sufficiently that I just plain forgot to get the gift card and walked out with nary a second thought.

   Maybe it was still there, and there had been an inventory/purchases reconciliation done at the end of the month, and an extra gift card for the Alamo Drafthouse was found and they had held onto it, waiting for me to return after realising I had forgot to pick it up.

   It was possible, but not probable. I've been shopping at Costco since the early 1980's when it was Price Club on Morena Blvd in San Diego, back when I was attending Mesa CC. I have shopped at Costcos from Anchorage (when it was Price Costco in the early years of the merger) to Glasgow, and I have never left an item behind, it's just not in my nature to be so careless.

   Heck, shares in Costco were the first stock purchase I ever made.

   As luck would have it I had to drive up to Boulder this past Sunday, and the Superior Costco location is right on the way, just off the 36 at McCaslin. I took the receipt for the Christmas Eve purchases with me and after finishing up my errand in Boulder, stopped in at the Costco.

   Entering the store I somewhat sheepishly explained to the associate at the returns counter what I thought had transpired on Christmas Eve. She politely directed me to the managers on duty over near the general merchandise window, as they would be the ones that would be able to assist me with my particular situation.

   Theresa was the manager who I explained the situation to, and instead of laughing her head off after I got done telling her the whole story, she asked me to wait while she went into a small back room.

   After about 5 minutes she came back, had a short conversation with another manager (I cannot for the life of me remember his name, but he was a very nice guy), and then told me again she would be right back. The second manager did ask me to confirm that what I thought I'd left behind was gift cards for the Alamo Drafthouse, which I did. 

   Theresa came back after speaking with the third associate briefly, and politely explained to me that they did have the gift cards I purchased there, but it wasn't a case of me getting distracted by all the Christmas Eve commotion that had resulted in the gift cards being left behind, rather it was me leaving them in the shopping cart in the parking lot. 

   I was momentarily dumbfounded. I stared at the gift cards as she handed them to me and repeated what she had said to me, and added that it was incredible that someone had found the gift cards in a shopping cart in the parking lot and returned them to the store.

   Theresa explained to me that items get left behind in carts everyday and she was happy to be able to reunite customers' with purchases they thought were lost forever.

   To say I was elated is a huge understatement. I walked through the Costco (had to get a few items, of course) as happy as the happiest of clams. .

   I couldn't help telling everybody I ran into over the course of the day the story of the lost gift cards and their return, it was that compelling (to my cynical a**, that slice of honesty and goodwill has got to be fairly rare).

   When I got home I wrapped up the gift cards in a big box (with some 2 X 6 scraps and packing peanuts, natch') and placed the present under the tree (still up for another week at least). KH came over that evening and I was happy to be able to hand her the gift.