I am not the best gift buyer, despite my guide to bad gifts, but I think it’s because I scrutinize every thing I see when shopping for presents. I end up with pretty good presents but it takes me a while to find the good stuff. That being said, I’m glad I scrutinize gifts so much, otherwise I might end up buying someone this:
I understand the target audience for this product. It’s likely moms, trying to decorate their house with nice things (to make it a home, of course). It’s for people who buy wooden signs and weird metal sculpture things. I don’t have a problem with that kind of stuff, it does look nice and it’s fun going to local craft fair-like things to pick out this kind of hand-made stuff, I even bought a lot of my gifts this year at an event like that. But “Welcome Friends,” written on a plain block of wood, from a T. J. Maxx?
That piece of merchandise made me stop and laugh for a solid 3-5 minutes. Ask my girlfriend. I could not stop laughing at how pathetic this thing was and imagining some lost Christmas shopper trying to find some gift on Christmas Eve and picking up this sad excuse for a decoration. It’s trying to be a real thing so hard but it can’t and just made me sad that someone “designed” this to be sold to someone without a clue of what “nice” means. Please, before you think I’m being to critical, imagine unwrapping this thing, this is your one present you get from someone and the lie you have to say pretending that you like it. This is what raced through my head as I couldn’t stop laughing at it.
Then I turned it over:
You go somewhere else and this beauty might cost upwards of $2.00! Don’t pay a premium for fine art, come on down to T. J. Maxx and we’ll beat that price! A guaranteed deal at only $1.99! Then you can bring that penny to the bank and let them know you’re opening a checking account, baby, and tell ’em there’s no way you’re paying a monthly fee!
