I was in IKEA last night with a friend, looking for these things I don’t know the name of, but I know they have them. They’re these cheap white plastic things you put on the floor, run your computer cables through them and snap them shut, so you don’t walk on them or roll your office chair over them. Since I ruin my cords on a regular basis, this would be a good idea.
But we couldn’t find them, and neither could the employees. I guess I’ll have to look in Staples or something.
Anyway, the place was crawling with Penn students selecting things for their dorm rooms/apartments. I said to my friend, “Imagine having so much money that you can pick what you want from IKEA, instead of what you can afford.”
My friend snickered and said, “Imagine being able to afford new stuff, instead of what people give you.”
I remember when a group of us visited a co-worker who just had a baby. The baby’s room was furnished with new, matching nursery furniture. I was floored. I had never known anyone who bought new bedroom furniture for babies or for kids. I had seen such furniture in stores or catalogs, but everyone I knew pretty much used ‘hand-me-down’ furniture for kids. But this happened quite a while ago, since then I’ve increasingly seen young working-class people with expectations that keep them in serious credit card debt. Successful marketing, I guess.
Mr. & Mrs. 1% refuse to release any more tax returns. Because if they do, they say, the common folk, us little people, will criticize them for paying little or no income taxes. “Let them eat cake.”
They call them, strangely enough, “cord covers” or “cord protectors”.
Hey, I’m not the one in customer service. I asked two people, and all I got were blank looks.
I use ‘twisty ties’ – from the grocery store. Free.
Mrs. S and I bought a crib and changing table for our daughter’s room. (It’s the only furniture you need in a baby’s room. I refused to put a chair in the room because I think falling asleep in a chair with an infant is dangerous.) We didn’t know anyone with baby furniture. The furniture is currently being used by our friend for her son. Another friend got our daughter’s swing, bouncy chair and lots of other stuff. It’s not often enough that we are in a position to help people like that, so we were happy to give it.
Dr S, Buying what you need and passing it on when you don’t need it anymore is understandable. I didn’t mean to sound so judgemental. But I see so many people, especially young adults, buying more stuff than they need or can afford and, I think, it becomes a trap.