Mad Dash

As you may recall, I headed over to Home Depot last weekend to pick up some pellets for next year’s heating season. Since they still had “the good ones” in stock at such a great price ($4.18/bag), my plan was to make two trips and buy an entire ton.

Unfortunately Jen didn’t like that plan. Lauren and I managed one trip, but the second was squashed in favor of playing with the kids at the park. Fair enough (good idea too). Their online inventory said they had 100 tons. Additional trips could wait.

A week later I go back and they’re all gone! Online inventory says 97 tons, but the sales people say “sorry we’re out”.

WTH?

I was pissed – really pissed.

Since the Home Depot I’d been going to wasn’t actually the Home Depot in our town (I’ve found the further west I go, the cheaper the same items are), I headed to the one in our town to check their stock. Online it said 11 tons, but at this point that meant very little.

The local Home Depot had stock, but it was going fast. There was a woman in front of me buying 20 bags and another guy with his son waiting in the wings. I bought 1 ton outright (50 bags), which puts me fully stocked for next winter. The kicker is the price per bag at my local store is $.16 more per bag than the store I’d been going to. It cost me $8 more to buy them here than if I’d bought them the week before.

Oh well. It’s only $8. It’s still cheaper than waiting till next fall and it’s still a lot cheaper than the “premium” pellets sold by the fire place store. In the end that’s all that I was angry about. I had an opportunity to get them at a great price and missed it, but $8 is hardly enough to get angry about – and we got to play in the park instead.

So in the end I’m fully stocked and still got everything for a decent price. Only concern at this point is this last ton was stored outside. They’re double wrapped in plastic, but the constant changing of the temperature differential and the moisture in the air creates a lot of condensation within the packaging. Every bag was wet, so I’ve set them out to dry. Hopefully the wetness remained on the outside and everything’s good. Won’t really know till next fall.

– b

ps. yeah, yeah, more of the mundane, but that’s what’s happening. Hopefully some interesting tidbits soon.