victory. a small one, however, victory nonetheless. since home depot sent me that $20 card without even reading my complaint i decided to exact a little justice of my own. deciding that i just could not allow all the cries go unheard from the succulents hidden under shelves where no light could warm and feed them. this particular shipment had been there almost 3 weeks because i had been in twice a week to look at them and they were drowning each time i saw them. leaves were dropping; horrible odors of mildew and rot were emanating from the majority; and at this visit the dirt had turned to brick and separted from their plastic cups. i asked three different people for help with the succulents. the third guy yukked that they looked healthy to him but he didn't really know anything about them and the garden person would be in tomorrow and had one foot in front of the other walking away. then can i speak to the manager, i asked. a barely contained look of surprise emanated from his awkward but youthfully handsome face. you mean the assistant manager, he inquired. whomever. well, i'm the garden manager and i'll go ahead and give you 50% off. all of them, i hoped carefully as if i honestly didn't care. oh, yes, yes. i'll walk you up front if you're ready. of course, lead the way. he began to hm, haw, "do you have any other shopping to do?" i could see that he was going to try to disappear before i got to the register leaving me appearing to be some mad plant lady so "no, thank you." was my response.

when we got to the register, he announced to the girl that she should take half off all the plants. she looked at him in dumb amazement like she had no idea what he was saying. she asked him if it was true and he responded positively. as i unloaded my cart of eight happily sighing baby plants a tiny blond girl asked "oh, are those venus flytraps?" i know with whom i deal here at Home Depot so it was just too easy to say something that would put on display the obvious lack of knowledge the staff possess. "no, just succulents" was my response of decorum. a lady lounging on the next register began to question him. "who are you. what's your position? what's your name, rank, serial number? just want to be sure you had authorization to do that?" i turned to her and asked "why is that?" she began to explain that she wasn't from this store and just as she opened her mouth to explain i turned my back. i assume she got the picture. it was inappropriate for her to question him in front of a customer, firstly. secondly, it was plain rude to embarass him in front of coworkers and customers. i don't know if she was smart enough to get it or not--and i don't care, truthfully. she must have understood because she took over and carefully boxed up my little lovlies. i thanked them and very slowly and very deliberately began my walk from the store. there were strange looks from some who had heard parts of the exchange. i held my head just a little higher. take that home depot. i took my free plants and went home.