Chocolate Baaar.

This afternoon, I decided to pop into Matalan before catching the bus home: I had a spare twenty minutes and the shop is right next to the bus stop. It wasn't an idle visit either. I needed to buy the Secret Santa present for the girl I've been given in mentor and I thought I might as well treat myself to something at the same time. I found a nice stripy cardigan (even if it was a bit expensive for Matalan: £18!) and while waiting in line to pay, I saw some Christmassy socks. I thought these would be great for Secret Santa. Some other socks also caught my eye: Chocolate smelling sheep socks (with the caption "Chocolate Baaar") that I just could not resist!

Eventually, I got to the till and asked if I could use my student card. The guy on the till asked "Is it an NUS extra card?" This left me thinking 'It's definitely an NUS card, but what's with the extra bit? Did I have to pay a bit more to get the extra bit? But, hang on; it said Matalan was on the list of discounts in the little booklet thingy!' Thankfully, I finally noticed the 'extra' written under 'NUS' and meekly said yes and handed over the card. "YAY!" I thought: £2 off my little bundle of goodies and then straight to the bus stop with plenty of time spare. Except it wasn't that easy…

Firstly, the guy called over one of the other members of staff before filling in a form using all the details on my card while this lady watched the proceedings from over his shoulder. He then asked me to sign it which was fair enough. But then, on the discovery that I did not own a Matalan store card, he informed me that I can't activate my student discount without it.

By now, I'm worrying about the time. From a glance at my phone, I established that I only had five or so minutes to make sure I was at the bus stop in time. (Unfortunately, I was catching the bus from a stop that is between the stops written down on the timetable so I only had a rough idea of when it was meant to come.) I was then assured that the process would take no more than a minute. At this point, I still hadn't even handed over any money yet so I decided that it would be just as quick to fill this out as make them undo and redo my discount and purchases. Also, this way I would get a 10% discount!

After filling in my name address, age, etc etc, I finally handed over my money and escaped the shop with my stuff. I also managed to catch the bus (which is good because I didn't fancy waiting another hour for the next one!) Nevertheless, I had left the shop with more than I bargained for. As well as the stuff that I bought, I had another discount-style card that I will hardly ever use, the knowledge that my house is very likely to now get two copies of the Matalan catalogue, and strong sense of defeat. All I wanted was a few items of clothing and to abuse my rights as a student! Maybe that £2 off wasn't really worth it after all!