A Tale of Service in two cities

I needed to go to a pet food store within two days of arriving in Germany as Socks was arriving that evening and I needed to buy her dry food before the pet couriers delivered her. I have been patronizing the same store for the last 17 months that we have been living here…for replenishing pet food, treats, new collar and leash, two dog beds, doggie bags etc., They had a loyalty card which they would stamp for every 20 EUR purchase and when you had made EUR 200 purchases in all – they would give you a 10% discount on your next purchase. On one such visit of mine I had forgotten to take my loyalty card, so I asked the cashier in my broken German to write on the back of the receipt that they had not stamped my loyalty card and I could do so on my next visit with the receipt in hand. They flatly refused to do so.

We visited Palm Coast, FL almost a full year after staying in Germany and went to CVS Pharmacy to stock up on out vitamin tablets. They had a promotion of Buy 1 Get 1 free on their own brand of vitamins. I did have a CVS card when I lived in the US, but had not taken it along with me on my trip. The cashier at the checkout said it was not a problem – to give him my address and zipcode and he would find it in the system. I gave him the details, but he could not find it in the system as our house is rented and we have new tenants living there with a new telephone no. The cashier immediately said that it was not a problem and issued us a new CVS loyalty card and scanned the new number to give us the store offer.

During our trip we also went to an Outlet Mall in St. Augustine and visited the Jockey/Lee stores and the cashier at the checkout asked us if either of us was over 55 and she could give us a senior discount – my husband said not yet – but in two months and she said not a problem and still gave us a senior discount.

And the strangest thing was that the cashier who served us was a German who had been living in the US for the last 20 years….

A recent bag I purchased....

Nordstrasse is one of my favourite shopping streets in Dusseldorf, there are quite a few stores which I love popping into, even if I do not want to buy anything. On one such foray of mine I spotted a handbag in my favourite colour – maroon. I immediately picked it up from the shelf and was quite astonished to find that it was very lightweight. The bag surface almost felt like parchment. I did not quite like the idea that it was so light, but then I opened the bag and looked inside and found this stitched into the inner zip pocket – genuine eel skin, Made in Korea.

I gave in to the temptation and purchased it and have not regretted my purchase. In addition to finding a bag in my favourite colour I found it had some really nice features. The zip of the bag does not just stop at the handles like most bags do but goes up all the way up the handle as you can see from the photo below:




On one side of the bag is a pouch in which I can safely store my handphone



and on the opposite size a zip pocket which is large enough for my keys or a small coin purse