Some toys are built to last.
Like that oh-so-sturdy LEGO tool bench stuck behind Christy Wise at Target, for example.
Said bench would have made for a great Christmas gift from a workshop grandpa to his inquisitive toddler grandson — and it did, actually.
Thing is, though, the other grandpa bought it first.
Duplicate.
Which meant it was now under the jurisdiction of Wise, who helps staff the customer service desk at the retailer in University Town Centre.
Part of her day Thursday entailed taking part in a time-honored, day-after-Christmas retail tradition.
You know: The refund or exchange of the wayward Christmas gift.
The size was wrong.
The gift was all wrong.
Or, the gift was all right, times two. (See oh-so-sturdy LEGO tool bench above).
Try as a Santa helper might, some gifts, Tony Haller said, come complete with a
little too much planned obsolescence.
That’s why the Fairmont man was giving a bemused grin in the direction of the gift he was returning Dec. 26.
He’s a dad to three rambunctious boys — the eldest is 8 — and that indoor basketball rim and backboard that was placed under the tree for the trio to share didn’t give him a whole lot of confidence in the durability department.
In other words, the patriarch concluded, it most definitely wasn’t an oh-so-sturdy LEGO tool bench.
“That’s not gonna make it to New Year’s in my house,” he said.
On the day after Christmas, he had built in a day of returns for that gift, and a couple of others purchased at other places.
“All part of a plan,” he said.
Just make sure that plan includes having your sales receipt, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said.
Remember, too, he said, that if you purchased something from a retailer’s online store, you may only be able to actually return it to the online store — which means shipping fees.
“Checking return policies before you take items back to the store can save a lot of time and potential headaches,” he said.
In the meantime, Haller isn’t the only one on with the quick return plan.
That’s according to the National Retail Foundation.
Fifty-five percent of shoppers surveyed by the foundation earlier this month said they would return or exchange any not-quite-right gifts by January.
A total of 80% surveyed by the Washington, D.C.-based retail trade association said they would rather make returns or exchanges in a physical store and not online.
And 74% said they would likely buy something else after exchanging the unwanted gift.
By mid-morning at Target, only a handful of shoppers, including Haller, had queued up for the exchange process.
“This isn’t really that busy,” Wise said. “You should have been here at 7 a.m. — that’s when people were lined up for the specials on wrapping paper.”
Cara Jaggie knows about early mornings. She’s a teacher at Skyview Elementary School.
And on Christmas morning, her 12-year-old daughter, Paige, had the house awake before 6 a.m., as she had an inkling.
As she was right — “I got an iPhone 11,” she said.
“We’re just taking care of some quick things today,” her mom said.
Don’t get too comfortable, though: There are only 49 shopping days until Valentine’s Day.
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