Do you ever make a purchase at one store and then go around to other stores afterwards to compare prices to make sure you paid a reasonable amount for your item? It is kind of silly, as it is perhaps better to just do your comparison shopping before committing to a purchase, but it is just human nature sometimes to do it the other way around.
I have a silly story to share about the time my husband and I were visiting friends in another city. We decided we wanted to buy our friends a garlic press, as we think everyone should own one if they like to cook with garlic.
First we went to Ikea, as we know they have decent garlic presses there. Of course they were sold out. We then went to a store that sold all sorts of kitchen gadgets. We found a decent looking garlic press for $18. Since it wasn’t a big purchase, we didn’t really feel like driving around a strange city to compare prices before buying the gift. So we bought it.
It just so happened, however, that when we were walking through a shopping mall a fair distance away from the other store, we walked into another kitchen gadget store. Of course we were curious as to how much they were asking for a garlic press. And of course they had the exact same garlic press, but they were only asking $10! Needless to say, we felt ripped off. We bought the $10 garlic press and decided to return the overpriced one.
We drove quite a distance and then returned to the original store to get our refund. The whole ordeal took us most of the afternoon. Some would think that we are extremely silly people, spending so much time in order to save a few dollars. Nevertheless, no one likes to feel like they have been ripped off, and since we really had nothing better to do that afternoon, it was not necessarily wasted time at all.
What do you do when you discover you have paid more for an item than you had to?
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