We went out this last weekend (or the one before?) and rented a U-Haul. We were on a mission.
Probably not the best idea to rent the truck before even looking at what's available for purchase. But, whatever! We went over the border into Wisconsin Land because we would pay less on sales tax if we bought out of state.
The weather was positively wonderful and the cab of the truck smelled positively horrible. We made our way to Slumberland, expecting them to be cheap but good.
A recliner was on the agenda, I wanted to get a love seat (or sofa) too but first things first! Our criteria was simple: big, non-rocking, absolutely no swiveling, and preferably leather.
When we arrived at Slumberland we wandered around and sat in all the chairs and reclined them and unreclined them and looked at the area rugs for sale and touched everything in sight. There were so many weird decor pieces set up around the store. Like, Indian tribal stuff. To my husband's great delight, I am not overly fond of nick-knacks or purely for decoration decor. I like some, but preferably with hidden (or obvious!) uses and not too many or I get to feeling claustrophobic and hoard-y.
In all of Slumberland we could only find one suitable chair. It was leather and reclining with massage and heat. It was big but it did rock. It had storage inside the arms, a cup holder and space for the remote or a magazine when you lifted up the armrest. It was $599, but they had nothing available for us to take that day. The salesman was incredibly snobby and said that he wouldn't give us a discount for it but we could take the incredibly shabby floor model.
Jim mediated between myself and the salesman and I coached Jim through shopping effectively, in other words, like a woman. Just because we had a U-Haul already rented doesn't mean we were going to buy anything less than perfect. Without the discount, we walked out of Slumberland.
With the U-Haul rented and a recliner to purchase we decided to take a quick trip down the street to see what other furniture places were around. Two blocks down the street we saw a small furniture store and decided to see what they had. There was a big sign in the window advertising a recliner sale.
We sat in chair after chair. I was feeling pessimistic toward the place and then, there it was! Big, leather, and it didn't rock! A beautiful dark grey color and a genuine La-Z-Boy. The saleswoman found us a price, a beautiful $599. They had a new one in the box in the warehouse in the back.
"We'll take it."
I paid for it and we drove the U-Haul around to the back, I went in and found two boys working alone in the warehouse. They told me they didn't have a recliner for me. Nope, they had a empty box that someone had put back on the shelf. I just laughed, it was unexpected and bizarre and I couldn't help myself.
The store was very apologetic and said that we could have the floor model no problem. We fished for a discount because you know, who knows who'd farted in it while it was on display. They said no, we could take the floor model or have one ordered and delivered to us.
We feigned examining the chair while discussing what we would do. This chair was in beautiful condition and I really liked it and we had the U-Haul rented.
They wrapped it in plastic and put it in the empty box. We thanked them and they thanked us. I was incredibly pleased with the results of the day. Jim had his recliner and it matched our rug! My wifey heart was satisfied.
We ate a celebratory lunch at Denny's and went home.
(The next day we found out that our recliner is part of one of La-Z-Boy's new collections called the "James" collection. I thought it was a funny coincidence.)
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