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djonnRather to my surprise, it takes all of about 90 seconds to have my sale-transaction voided back at the First Store; the manager isn't happy, but he's apologetic (though he blames the North Store for the error, insisting that they told him they had more than enough players in stock, which doesn't match what I heard of his half of the phone calls).
Fortunately, there are two more plausible retailers just across the street on the way back to the transit center.
Unfortunately, the first stocks only one brand of portable -- Audiovox, which I've long since taken to be at the low end of the market and don't want to risk buying -- and the second caters to the high end of the market, such that the one player they have that I'd consider (a Sony) would cost more than the North Store's offered trade-up.
Next stop is therefore Best Buy -- five minutes away by bus, but it takes 20 because I arrive at the transit center just in time to see the bus I want going on its merry way, and have to wait for the next one.
There are initial complications. Best Buy has the Toshiba portable on display -- but they too are out of boxed units, and don't offer me the floor item. OTOH, they do have a couple of Polaroid (!) models that look plausible, and I settle on one of those for Father, a basic Toshiba set-top player for Mother, and a pair of movies for each.
[Aside: Different salesfolk have made different claims about whether one can hook a given portable player to a regular TV. The Best Buy staffer swears not -- and even were it possible, I resolve to get both sorts of player on the theory that neither parent is the type who will want to disconnect and reconnect a portable from their home TV when they are going somewhere.]\
At any rate, success is achieved -- and I eventually walk in through my front door eight hours after walking out of it. OTOH, I got a full 1-1/2 murder mysteries read during the assorted bus and train rides....)
Fortunately, there are two more plausible retailers just across the street on the way back to the transit center.
Unfortunately, the first stocks only one brand of portable -- Audiovox, which I've long since taken to be at the low end of the market and don't want to risk buying -- and the second caters to the high end of the market, such that the one player they have that I'd consider (a Sony) would cost more than the North Store's offered trade-up.
Next stop is therefore Best Buy -- five minutes away by bus, but it takes 20 because I arrive at the transit center just in time to see the bus I want going on its merry way, and have to wait for the next one.
There are initial complications. Best Buy has the Toshiba portable on display -- but they too are out of boxed units, and don't offer me the floor item. OTOH, they do have a couple of Polaroid (!) models that look plausible, and I settle on one of those for Father, a basic Toshiba set-top player for Mother, and a pair of movies for each.
[Aside: Different salesfolk have made different claims about whether one can hook a given portable player to a regular TV. The Best Buy staffer swears not -- and even were it possible, I resolve to get both sorts of player on the theory that neither parent is the type who will want to disconnect and reconnect a portable from their home TV when they are going somewhere.]\
At any rate, success is achieved -- and I eventually walk in through my front door eight hours after walking out of it. OTOH, I got a full 1-1/2 murder mysteries read during the assorted bus and train rides....)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-24 12:33 pm (UTC)Master and Commander
The Italian Job (original)
The Magnificent Seven
Space Cowboys
Support Your Local Sheriff
Father has read the O'Brian books on which M&C is based, and has spoken appreciatively about the wackiness of the extended car chase in The Italian Job; both of them like Westerns, and Mother is a major James Garner fan.
Haven't seen Laws of Attraction, but both that and After the Sunset sound like good bets -- they definitely like both Tracy & Hepburn and Hope & Crosby, plus John Wayne and a bunch of the Western character actors. As for the risqué stuff, they don't seem to mind it in a good cause -- one they did see in the theater was Shakespeare in Love, another being Steve Martin's Roxanne.