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Chair... on a whim

Scott turned to Alex and asked we if had any water. "Uhmm, no we don't" Alex said excitedly... "... but we could get some" he offered as if to quench Scott's thirst... This meant a trip out of the office, like to the gigantic store Costco. I mean if you're gonna get water why not get a tank of water, right?

Have you ever been to Costco by the way? It's like the king of all wholesales, the zenith if you will. It's also got like the biggest parking lots in the entire hemisphere with great prices to boot. Alex and i would go there occasionally to get stuff we need (like motor oil- Mobil 1 synthetic- $29 for a case... this is around $45 in the real world. Yes i am plugging for Costco). This particular trip though (besides the water) we didn't necessarily have anything in mind. Costco just seemed like the right ingredient for a little afternoon pick-me-up... Once there we visit the requisite electronics area and buy absolutely nothing after almost 30 minutes of gawking. It's the Men's equivalent of what women refer to as "window shopping". In fact Costco's electronics aisle is just like the store Forever 21, it's full of stuff from the previous years models (lol Uhmm, i know this because i used to have a girlfriend who made Forever 21 a necessary stop on her customary weekly trip to the mall...).

The next stop was the Automotive Section, perhaps the 2nd most important stop in all of Costco (the most important being the liquor section of course). Here Alex picks up a lot of things that will probably either remain in the garage or in his truck never to see the light of day. He buys stuff like non-abrasive carwash kits and mini electric drills (in case he installs more speakers...). All i ever get there is Motor Oil...

Before strolling over to the all important liquor section we took a detour to the Home Decor/Office section. Surprisingly there was not a big selection. I guess i expected Costco to have a excessive selection of everything (even chairs). In fact there was only three computer chairs on display. Even more surprising were the prices, all above $150.00... and these aren't even plush chairs. Anyway, even with the exorbitant prices i contemplated buying one because i'd been in bad need of a new computer chair for quite some time now. My old chair feels anti-ergonomic you see... I was actually able to convince myself that the prices were somewhat fair. The only problem was that although the chairs were comfortable enough i couldn't help but think that a choice of only three chairs would seem hardly sensible. So realizing Costco was hardly a Chair store we skipped over to the liquor area to stock up (i got a case of Dos XX and Alex some Vodka) but not without quelling my suddenly dire need of a chair-- we were heading out to the Office Depot a few blocks down afterwards...

Office Depot (at least Chair-wise) was heavenly compared to Costco. On display were at least 30 chairs ranging from cheap to vinyl to plush leather seats with a price to match (of course). Since i was prepared to pay up to $200 (at least in Costco) my choices seemed endless. I wanted something that isn't necessarily leather but something with a steel frame, tall for good back support, adjustable height and recline, and adjustable arm rest with a full swivel action. In a perfect world that would run me just under my budget, but not in the Office Depot world. That beautiful chair was around $500.00 which i was not about to pay. But with a number of choices i was sure to find something comparable... And found something i did. Sitting in a corner looking beguilingly the same as all the other black leather chairs is this sleek office chair on closeout sale. I immediately liked the chair the moment i sat on it and liked it even more when i leaned back and rested my head on the comfortable headrest. As an added bonus its got this really cool 5-mode back massage system installed in the chair. Browsing the internet and getting a massage, i mean thats gotta be cool...

Still, $150 is no chump change (but you gotta figure over $200 originally, right?). Turns out the chair was a discontinued model and they weren't even suppose to be on display because (two on display) the plugs are missing (so basically the massager wont work). Obviously the chair still works so we figured we could purchase it for a nice discounted price (Alex said he would be willing to pay up to $100). The lady said she couldn't think of a reason why not, so that trip was turning out to be okay... Then, as if to thwart our excitement the lady came back with an almost insulting offer-- $10 off the Chair. I actually laughed...

It almost felt like i was purchasing a car at some point because they kept going back inside that mysterious back office like they do in the dealerships only to come back with yet another ridiculous offer. Eventually the last offer was $80 which was less than what Alex was willing to pay so it wasn't all bad after all. Then, when we rolled the chairs over to the cashier the machine registered a shocking $60... We paid and got the hell out of there like we just robbed the place!

Not bad huh? Except we forgot to buy water...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Tuesday, April 24, 2007