Does This Bug You Too?

I survived quarantine and a bout of COVID, but being the paranoid person I am, I am now a part-time hermit. Thus, I’ve had time to ponder issues that bug me. These are far beyond the eight hotdogs/six buns crisis that occasionally rears its ugly head, and more pressing than how to use the twelve-foot receipts from a certain store to decorate for holidays and birthdays. These are hard-hitting issues that will transfer from my head to yours forever. Warning: some of these have been stewing for quite a while!

• Why, oh why does Amazon send me such tiny items in such large boxes? I open the box and find the pillows they stuff in the box. I pull and pull and… etc., and finally, at the bottom, is the gadget I ordered. It’s not fragile or liquid. Why do I now own seven feet of puffed-up plastic (granted, my cats love it), one huge box, and one small gadget?
• While I’m on the subject of over-stuffing… Why do so many vitamins and other pills come in large bottles where half the bottle is filled with cotton? I know it’s to protect the pills, but can’t the bottle and the cotton amount be smaller? Just asking.
• Why, when I’ve already called my pharmacy to check to see if my refill is ready, and let them know I’m on my way, does it then take them fifteen minutes to find my little bag of pills? I know you checked the bags under “B” because I heard them rattling. Did you take the bag out and put it somewhere where you’d never lose it, because I do that a lot. Should I ask you to leave it right where you found it so you can find it again?
• Why do stores post their hours so tiny that you have to get out of your car and walk to the door to read them? Come on, people, get some BIG lettering. I’m not as young as I used to be. Hint: take a picture of the posting and enlarge it on your phone. It works.
• Why is it that as soon as I find a product I must have in my life, it’s immediately discontinued or changed? It’s like I’m on some cosmic list, and as soon as I’ve purchased the requisite number of items, some box is ticked somewhere in the ether and word is sent to the manufacturer–change this. The Binder family likes it too much. Don’t want to change it? OK, then raise the price to where no one in their right mind is going to buy it. And somewhere, someone cackles and rubs their hands together. My happiness is foiled yet again.
• I do a lot of online shopping for everything. But what I find teeth-clenching is how products change from order to order. I realize shrinkflation is a real thing, but the last time I ordered a shirt from a big box store, identical in every way but color, it was two inches shorter! I mean, come on. But as hubby later pointed out, I didn’t complain. That’s because I know things won’t change. I can’t remember the last time any product out there actually got larger!
• OK, this one has been rattling around in my head for years and it has a YUCKY WARNING. Why is the toilet paper holder always placed on the wall so that men’s splash back might contaminate it? There are often better places on the wall the TP holder could go, but since the ones putting it there are usually male, they don’t think about it. Convenience over cleanliness, I guess. BTW, I don’t have discussions about hubby putting the seat back down. Call me crazy, but I’m perfectly happy for him to leave it up, because then I know he actually put it up before using it. Very thoughtful of him.

I think people need to vent more often. We’re in the clutches of manufacturers and stores and don’t seem to have any recourse for our complaints. They know we still need their products, so we’ll still shop. Hubby thinks every time there’s a commercial on TV, there should be a link to the product so we can tell them what we think about both commercial and product. I think that’s a very good idea. Of course, given how many commercials our family mutes, the airwaves would be overcome with complaints. The most awful commercial on TV now–brace yourself–the ad where the man smells his beard, then offers it to his friend. OMG, is it for real? It turns my stomach! It’s for insurance and just because of that commercial, I’d never purchase it.

That’s it for now. I’d love to hear from you regarding your pet peeves! Bye!