Cheapskate

For reasons I shan't go into here (mainly because, all being well, I'll go into them next weekend), I found myself footloose and fancy-free in Kingston yesterday afternoon. This was a good thing because I actually had some bits and pieces I needed to pick up (pick up as in buy, not shoplift), and, well, I like going to Kingston. Incidentally, did anyone see Primeval on ITV last night? That shopping centre they were chasing a velociraptor round was the Bentalls Centre in Kingston - it's famous, good times!

Anyway, one of the things I needed to buy was a new 12-month subscription to Xbox Live - mine runs out on Wednesday, y'see. Having to renew this in January is always a bit of a pain because Amazon is the cheapest place to get it (about a fiver off), but of course the post-Christmas shopper is wise to this, and Amazon sells out pretty rapidly after the festive period, leaving doofy here either having to wait for them to restock and going without online play for however long, or stumping up a bit of extra cash so he can continue to play Halo 3 with the little Mexican dude who babbles away in Spanish and calls him "amigo."

Armed with that little bit of extra cash, I thus began scouring the shops of Kingston for the best deal, soon coming to the conclusion that Argos was my best bet. Argos, for those that don't know, is Britland's finest catalogue store; they don't have the items they sell on show - you choose them from a catalogue (or the "laminated book of dreams" as Bill Bailey once called it), then pay for them, then they bring them out from a mysterious warehouse for you.

Years ago, when I was a kid, there used to be something rather special about buying stuff from Argos. I think it came down to the fact that you could ogle what you wanted to buy in the catalogue while you saved your pocket money, then when you actually went to buy it the moment where the cashier did the stock check was a period of giddy excitement that could either make or break a young boy's dreams of completing his set of The Real Ghostbusters action figures. And then, of course, you had that brief wait while they brought your item out from the stock room and plonked it on the shelf behind the counter. Oh, the anticipation!

Anyway, none of that matters anymore because I officially hate Argos now. According to my receipt, I paid for my Xbox Live 12-month pre-paid card at 15:33; I eventually received said item at 16:01, after numerous assurances from the stern east-european employee that "ve haf people loiking for your item."

Obviously not very hard.

In the best part of half an hour that I stood there, I saw a wide cross-section of people come and go, from little kids buying Nintendo games, to little old ladies buying wicker linen baskets, and chavs buying sovereign rings in the jewelry sale. Admittedly, when they did finally bring out my item I did get an apology, though it didn't stop me from saying "you just went and bought this from another shop, didn't you?" The lady laughed and said "no, but that's a good idea."

Another good idea is that I'll be buying my Xbox Live subscription from Amazon waaaaaaaaaay in advance of it expiring next time. And never going in Argos again.