The Law of Target, or How $17.99 headphones cost me $111.00 and too much gas

We're flying from Virginia to San Diego (via Boston but don't even get me started on that) to visit my sister. One of the reasons I chose the airline I chose is that they have DirectTV at every seat. Of course we won't let our son watch TV the entire time but it will serve as a good distraction for at least part of the long journey (made much longer by going through Boston but like I said, don’t get me started).

Yesterday afternoon I realized that while my husband and I will use our iPod ear buds, Lucas needed his own set of headphones for the plane.

Off to Target!

After I meandered through every other section, I finally got to the audio aisle in the very back of the store and found several options for child-sized headphones. I chose the $17.99 version of a brand I knew (which were on sale from $21.99) over the $14.99 version of a brand I didn’t recognize. (Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who seems to think that more expensive = higher quality. That probably deserves its own post!)

In the $1 bins I found some cute board books including Sesame Street books on counting, shapes and ABCs and some Halloween books. I picked up 6 board books for $6. Yeah, they're fairly lame but having 6 new books on the plane will certainly keep Lucas occupied for a little while and if we leave one behind somewhere it won't bother me in the least.

When I got to the register did I have only the headphones and board books in my cart?

Oh no.

I had lots and lots more, taking my approximately $26 shopping trip up to $111.

The Law of Target was in full effect!

You know, the Law of Target. It’s happened to you, too. Somehow you can not leave Target without spending between $80-$100. No matter what. That’s the Law of Target.

When I got home I greedily took everything out of the bags to admire. I put out my new door mat (hey, I needed a new door mat!), admired the cute birthday gifts for my niece (they were on clearance! Her birthday is fast-approaching at the end of the month!) and was all set to check out those headphones.

Wait? Where were the headphones?

Not in any of the bags. Not in my trunk. Mysteriously the only place I could find the headphones was ON MY RECEIPT!

UGH!

I called and explained that I was just there, had purchased and paid for headphones yet they were not to be found in any of my bags.

Come on back and pick them up, I was cheerily told.

So, back in the car, drive to Target, park, walk to Customer Service, explain again.

Now, wouldn't you think that my cashier, upon finding that she didn't give me the bag with the headphones, would have taken that bag to Customer Service where it would have sat, waiting for me to come back and get it?

Wouldn't that make sense?

Apparently not.

When I got there I had to walk through the entire store (with more things calling out buy me! buy me!—I resisted) to the audio department to get another set of headphones and bring them back to customer service where they rang them up as a return/exchange (which also doesn't make much sense to me).

Headphones secured, I got back in the car and drove home to pick up Lucas from the babysitter feeling totally annoyed about the whole thing. Darn headphones!

After dinner, when I plugged them into my iPod for Lucas, the look of pure delight on his face was worth every second of aggravation. He loved them. He called them "MY telephones!" (I tried to correct him but he wouldn’t have it, they were telephones, Mama!) and danced all around the dining room. When a slow song came on, he closed his eyes and swayed just a bit as the most fantastic little smile spread across his face.

Oh man, I sure do love those headphones!

Adapted for DC Metro Moms from Aimee's personal blog, Smiling Mama, where she writes about life with a toddler (when she isn't spending too much money at Target!).