…and the audism reaction…

I am an avid collector of Hot Wheels, I have too many, sure, and want to off-load a lot, but I still like to browse and buy them occasionally.

Today, I was at Walmart looking at their sordid offering of Hot Wheels.
By “sordid” I mean most of their Hot Wheels products are in a bad state: they could be badly bent, damaged or even empty! By empty, I do mean someone got the car out of the package, a thief!

That should be enough back story…

Today, as I said, I was trolling the Hot Wheels, when I came upon a damaged package with a really nice Delorean on a trailer pulled by a van.

Someone had attempted to steal the three-part deal before either chickening out or was caught. Either way, the back of the package was ripped, one more inch and all three could be pocketed easily.

So, I wrote a message on iPhone notes saying: “This package is damaged and unsellable, but I will buy it.”

I showed both to a manager who spoke something, then realizing quickly that I was Deaf, put up ten fingers; which I interpreted as $10.

I accepted right away, as the retail price was $20.

The manager called over a cashier, and said something to her, and vanished.

So the Cashier was saying something to me, being Deaf, I held up 10 fingers. She seemed to cotton on, and fiddled with something on her machine, then indicated that I could pay now pointing to the debit machine.

I zoomed out the door, happy that I got a great deal, until… I saw that the deal fell through!

Somehow, between talking to the manager (ten fingers = $10) and the cashier fiddling with her machine, the price had gone back to its original 20 bucks!

Being DeafBlind, I couldn’t see the readout screen, and couldn’t converse rapidly with the cashier or manager. Could he mean 10 minutes wait instead of 10 bucks? If I saw the screen saying $20, I would have challenged “He (pointing to manager) 10 fingers, What shrug?”

But, no, I felt taken advantage of because I am DeafBlind!

Oh well, next time I see a severely damaged product at Walmart I won’t bother talking to a manager, I’ll just rip the car(s) out and put them in my pocket!
(I’m joking!)

(Or am I?)

Thanks for reading!