All Ice and Inline Hockey Skates ON SALE! 20% Off! (Or NOT!)

[I may be an ass, but I'm a principled ass!]

My 16 year old daughter and I went shopping for ice skates yesterday.  I picked her up from school and we headed to an adjacent suburb known as a local shopping mecca. I wanted to get her a new pair of ice skates after she had mentioned (over the holidays) that she had out grown her old ones and had been borrowing her mother's to skate with her friends. (I know that those are at least 40 years old because my erstwhile spouse already had them when we met in college!)

I really wanted to do this for my daughter because she never asks for things, which is pretty unusual for a teenager these days. Also, I want her to be able to enjoy things that she can do here in Minnesota (while she's here in Minnesota!), since she may not have the opportunity when she goes off to college and beyond. Things like cross-country skiing, ice-skating and talking Minnesotan should not be taken for granted! Who knows how long one will have the opportunity? She and her friends go skating fairly often because there is a decent sized pond in the neighborhood, and there are lots of kids/parents who are hockey fanatics, thus there are often large areas of recently cleared ice available. Several neighbors who live on the edge of the pond team up and use their snowblowers to clear most of the snow, then the other neighbors pitch in with shovels to clear the remainder down to the surface of the ice.

When we got to the sporting goods store, we walked into the section lined with ice skates of all varieties, in adult and children's sizes. There were traditional hockey skates, traditional figure skates, modern hockey skates with uppers that resemble the type found on inline "roller"skates, and even figure skates with this more modern style of upper "boot." It was pretty clear from the styles that my daughter was checking out that she liked the figure skates with the new rollerskate style boot. We looked for the proper size for her, and noticed the selection was fairly sparse. After a bit more searching we found a table with both hockey skates and figure skates, and a sign propped on top of the boxes of skates said:

"All Ice and Inline Hockey Skates ON SALE! 20 % Off!"

Wonderful! (I will admit to a certain initial sticker shock at seeing skates priced in the $60 to $80 range when we walked in! It seems like they cost about $10 the last time I purchased a pair!) Even better, we found a pair in the size and style that she liked. Great! They were $60, but at 20% off they would end up costing less than $50. Not exactly cheap, but better than the original price.

Waiting to check out, I can tell that my daughter is excited. She pulls out $50 and says that she will pay for them. I say "no way!" She looks at me exasperatedly! "Ok, I'll pay $40" she announces. "Nope" sez I. "$35!" "Nope!" "Dad! Let me pay half then!" "Nuh-uh!" I say.

After a few moments we are checking out. As the cashier rings up our purchase, I ask her about getting them sharpened. (I had noticed that the blades were not sharpened at the factory.) The cashier explains that they include a free sharpening with the purchase, but their sharpening machine is "down" because it needs a new sharpening wheel. Damn! "But you can take them to so-and-so sports... they do the best job." she adds.  "And we'll still give you a free sharpening when you need the one the next time." Okay, that sounds acceptable to me.

I'm about to sign the receipt for me debit card purchase when I notice that the total is nearly $64... "Hey wait!" I say. "These are supposed to be 20 percent off!" The cashier sighs, as if to say "Why didn't you say something earlier" but she doesn't actually say it. My daughter is looking a bit troubled because even she thinks the skates are too pricey without the sale price discount. The cashier looks through the newspaper ad, then calls someone up to the register. A lanky young man comes up and hears about the discrepancy. I explain that there was a sign stating "all ice and hockey skates on sale" posted right on the boxes of skates from which we pulled this pair. He makes a slight eye-roll himself as he heads somewhat begrudgingly back to the area where the skates are... then returns looking rather put-out. He plops the sign on the counter and points to the wording as he reads, slowly as though to suggest that I must be mentally challenged:

"It says All... Ice... and Inline... Hockey... Skates... On Sale..." Then he says "These aren't hockey skates."

"I know that they're not hockey skates" I reply. "But they are "ice skates!"

Now he looks at me really peevishly as he declares pointedly "But the sale is only on hockey skates!"

By now other customers are in line to check out. I see them looking at the sign, looking at the staff person, looking at me... looking back at the sign... looking confused...

"But the sign says Ice and hockey skates!" I say. "And it was right on the top of the stack of skates that we pulled this box from!"

Now his voice drips with tremendous sarcasm as he says "Sir... the sale is on ice hockey skates and inline hockey skates... not figure skates."

"Aren't all ice hockey skates inline?" I ask (believing this to be a quite reasonable point. The blades are, after all, a very straight line.)

"No sir. Inline hockey skates are like roller skates." (Unsaid in his comment, but clearly intended, was a punctuating comment implied: dumbass!)

Ahhh... so I somehow hadn't understood that in the section containing only ICE skates, there was a sign referring to all ice and inline hockey skates that didn't include fully half of the ICE skates in the section! My daughter is now becoming more embarrassed by my irritation at the young man's attitude than by anything else. She says "It's ok, Dad. Let's just go." I'm annoyed because I really want to get her some skates, but I don't want to get them here!

We left. We next went to the place that does "the best skate sharpening" (as per the previously mentioned cashier.) They had an even better pair of skates for the same price as we would've paid at the first place (though not the sale price.) The skates were already sharpened.  That was all I needed to hear.  I said "Fine. We'll take 'em!"

After all was said and done, I'm not sure if I came out ahead or behind for the day as far as price paid. But my daughter ended up with skates that she likes. That's a good thing. And I stood up for some sort of principle, even if it wasn't clear to the others involved. (I still don't know if the other customers shared my point of view or just thought I was being a pain in the ass.)

What I do know is this: If I ever write a sale price sign for Hockey skates (ice and inline) it will say "All HOCKEY SKATES ON SALE! (Including all ice hockey and inline hockey skates!"

And if other types of ice skates are NOT included? Well, I'll include a statement saying just that: "*Sale does NOT include figure skates."

Just sayin...

p.s. Not sure if my daughter will ever go shopping with me again!