Ooooooh, warm and fuzzy

So I recently had occasion to set a foot into Michaels. I usually avoid this at all costs. Michaels is one of those places that has miles and miles of stuff I don’t need, seldom has what I do need, nobody to help me find anything and a ten hour wait to be checked out at the end of the ordeal.

If you’re getting the feeling I don’t like Michaels much…you’re right. I tend to rush in for emergency balls of baby yarn once in a great while and that’s about it. Somehow, even when I just walk straight to the ball of yarn I want and straight back to the cash register, they manage to annoy me.

Anyway, I had an emergency need for a bent tapestry needle and was 99% sure they would have it (sigh – they didn’t), so in I went.

There was a big sign on the knitting needle rack: ATTENTION KNITTERS: DUE TO REQUESTS, WE HAVE ORDERED LARGER SIZE NEEDLES. WE ASK THAT YOU NOW GO AHEAD AND BUY THEM. WE CANNOT CATER TO REQUESTS AND THEN HAVE PRODUCT THAT IS NOT PURCHASED WHEN IT WAS SPECIALLY REQUESTED.

Ahem. See, this is one of the reasons my Michaels sets my teeth on edge. This is like the time the cashier mis-keyed the UPC code and tried to charge me $8.99 for $2.49 skeins of yarn and then got all hostile with me when I pointed out the mistake and opined that, “It would really help if you’d make sure you chose yarn with scanable barcodes.”

That’s one idea. Or…you could try not sucking. That would also really help. (No, I didn’t actually say it to her, but I thought it real hard…)

I’d be willing to put money down right now that says every single knitter who asked, “Do you have size {10, 12, 14, ginormous} needles?” had either walked next door to WalMart to get them, ordered them online somewhere, or otherwise gotten her need filled weeks before you decided to graciously cater to our whim and stock those large size needles. Knitters do not wait when they have a project in mind. When I say I need #12 needles, I need them today. I will not be able to sleep at night until I have them. I will drive 45 miles to that Darn Yarn in Ripon to get them (cool yarn store, by the way – I finally got out there yesterday) (and then was so tired I wanted to just lie down and take a nap, which is the symptom that is driving me most crazy; I’ve got no staying power!).

And I’m also wondering, since when is confrontation with your customers a good idea? (Shoplifters aside.) See, let’s say I owned a store and, after fielding several requests for same had ordered a few #14 needles and then they didn’t move. I might draw attention to them with a sign. “Wow! Look! We now carry sizes 0 through 14! Woo hoo!” Might even put arrows and smiley faces and otherwise make sure it was a hard sign to miss.

But “We stocked it, now buy it, you jackass!”? Umm, probably not.

Fortunately for me, I have since discovered that yes, Virginia, we have a yarn store in Tracy. Right downtown, conveniently located near not one but two coffee shops. And since I have learned my lesson and now stock my baby yarn months in advance (purely for convenience and to avoid Michaels, not because I have any “stash” issues…) via online sales at Joanne or Smiley’s yarns – I can avoid Michaels and WalMart altogether.

Which is good. Because don’t even get me started on trying to get a stupid set of #8 needles at WalMart…