Adventures with Gut Marty

So now that the wedding planning is over, it's time to start planning for the honeymoon...the trip to Rome. It is only a few short weeks away (2 I think).

Back in January, Alex and I discussed what our next big item purchases would be after the wedding and agreed a dish washer and digital camera had to be next. We would tackle the dishwasher first.

You see, Alex is not a believer in the pre-rinse ritual when loading dishes. I mean, why in the world would anyone want to 'wash' the dishes so that they can 'wash' the dishes in a machine that is supposed to 'wash' the dishes FOR you? I can see this point. However, rules and practices governing the use of a dish washer says to pre-rinse...remove food solid food down your disposal before placing item to be washed in the dish washer.

Alex decided to skip this part, and in a matter of six months from the day we moved into our new home, he broke the dishwasher. There were one too many coffee beans and other things which I don't care to think about that clogged up our machine. Pools of water began collecting inside the washer. I can tell you I was a little more than upset, espeically since two weeks prior to the break down, I'd caught him not pre-rinsing and strongly advised he start doing so or that the machine will break. This isn't the first time I'd 'advised' him on something where he has not followed and another financial loss ensued....there was that other time...I digress.

This past Friday we walked into Best Buy as our first place to start our search. We were met by Marty...the world's largest gut. This was not just a fat person with a bigger than average stomach. This was a gut! His gut started from his chin all the way down to his knees. I am NOT exaggerating. I'm positive it took Alex every energy from every cell in his body not to bust out laughing when he approached us.

I begin to tell Gut Marty what we are looking for (yes, I am the initiator in these situations in the marriage). I also point out to him a couple of machines that we thought may suit our needs. Instantly Gut Marty begins his 'schpeel' on why the higher and more expensive models clean better and are quieter. My ears tune out when people do this to me (talk about crap I did not ask information about).

He talks about sanitizing mode, quiet feature, load capacity...blah, blah, blah. I know that the water does not need to be 500 degrees to sanitize. I also know that load capacity is a non-issue if you load and wash dishes every day. As for the quiet feature...our old dish washer isn't a quiet model but it's never kept me awake or prevented me from talking on the phone with anyone due to loud noise.

Gut Marty realizes he is not going to talk me into a higher model. So he starts in on what a great deal the ones we were looking would be. So then I ask him about all the other possible costs...delivery, removal of old washer, installation, warranties...etc. I wince when Gut Marty goes into all the extras. Then he says he can cut our delivery charge in half if we buy the model that day. I'm upset now because it becomes clear to me that they are using delivery as a profit generating tool on machines that are already marked up for profit. Yes, I'm aware businesses need to make money and all, but this place was going to charge me for everything that needed to be done, like removal of the old dish washer.

We thank Gut Marty for all his 'information' and leave the appliances area. We walk over to the digital camera section and purchase a camera for our honeymoon in Rome. The dishwasher will have to wait till July...to be purchased elsewhere.