Tuesday, January 30, 2007

brilliantly on target

Sometime last week I got a call from Target. They weren’t calling to say, We haven’t seen you in a few days. They were calling to tell me I’d forgotten to pay my bill. This is no big surprise. I have a way-too-frequent tendency to forget to pay my bills. I thought it was pretty nice of them to bring it to my attention and allow me to pay by check right then and there over the phone. Win-win.

I get my mail once a week at best. Only when I think I’m close to getting that little note that says my mail has been taken to the Post Office do I get it. I used to love the mail. Who knew what unexpected piece of happiness might come?

Now the mail is just something else to clutter up my house, and I don’t need any help with that. And it always holds those bills I forget to pay. But when I went on my last mail run (after the pay-your-bill call), I saw that I had a letter from Target.

On the outside, on the front, it said, “Sometimes, the best presents are the ones you give yourself.” Sure, I’ll buy that (no pun intended). I love to get presents for myself. I bought myself a new pair of jeans just this past Saturday. I don’t need new jeans – I wouldn’t begin to know how many pairs I own at this point. But, you know what they say, Sometimes the best presents are the ones you give yourself. And by “they,” I of course mean Target.

Anyway. It was the back of the envelope that got me. “You shopped brilliantly over the holidays. Now it’s time for your 10% off shopping day at Target.”

That’s not the end. I opened the envelope and took out the card. “Brilliant job shopping over the holidays, REDcard holder.” (Yes, that’s right, I have a Target credit card.)

Aren’t they really saying, “Good going spending an obscene amount of money in our store over the holidays”? But so much more nicely worded.

The thing is, whenever I get these 10% off shopping days, I buy stuff I would never buy on a normal trip to Target. 10% off is really not that much. But when you have that special card, you feel like everything is free. When my sister lived here, she and I would organize our 10% off trips. Big excursions to Super Target. (You have to go the Super route when you’ve got the special card. So much more to buy at Super Target.)

My 10% card expires March 2. So sometime before then, you can bet I’ll be hitting up Super Target for a major trip. Then I’ll just sit back and wait for the nice lady to call to say I owe them lots of money.