Playing Froger

My husband has a personal vendetta against a store we'll just refer to in this post as "Froger". The seed of his intense dislike goes all the way back to Hurricane Ike.

Oh yes, Hurricane Ike did more than just wreck our wedding - it left Joey cursing Froger in Scarlett O'Hara fashion. "With God as my witness, if I have lie, steal, cheat or kill - I will NOT buy anything from Froger!"

Ok, maybe that's a little dramatic and Scarlett's probably not someone Joey would like to be compared with; so instead, please replace the hoop-skirted Scarlett image in your mind with Rhett and insert the "Frankly my dear" part in its place. There. All better. An aside, can you tell that Gone with the Wind is one of my favorites?

Back to the thought behind this post...

See, right after Ike things were a little crazy. People were a little crazy. You would hear stuff like "Well, at the Shell on the corner of Street 1 and Street 2, they have gas-o-line!" "I heard So-and-So is having their power lines worked on today. Might have 'lectricity in couple of days." Rumors of gas and electricity spread like wildfire and companies that could meet the demand would take full advantage of the hysteria.

It was at this point in the Ike Aftermath that Joey ventured out to Froger to get "supplies". He picked up several items including what would become the notorious 12 Pack of Water. The Deal Breaker.

At checkout the cashier asked if Joey had a Froger card. Nope, wasn't one of the Froger card-carrying elite. We had just bought our house in this area of town, so we hadn't formed grocery alliances yet. Anyway, he was in a hurry and didn't get the Froger card.

When he got home he realized that they had overcharged him about $10 for water. Joey went back to alert them to the error. Froger's response: you didn't have a Froger card. The price listed was if you had a Froger card. If you didn't, Froger was going to make you pay and even better, if you didn't look at your receipt - you wouldn't even know. Majorly taking advantage of Ike-Panicked People sans Froger Cards.

Joey hates the idea of getting a Froger card to pay a price that is still more expensive than "R-EB". He also had one other issue there and I can't remember what exactly happened, but bottomline: Froger messed with the wrong guy.

Joey, the Champion of Consumers, has developed a plan to get back at Froger. I became aware of the plan when I noticed a pile of Froger cards on the kitchen counter. A pile.

As I shop at R-EB and knew Joey had a problem with Froger, this just didn't make sense. So I asked the Champion of Consumers. He said that whenever we needed something that he had to get quickly (Froger is SUPER close to us) he would go to Froger and get a new Froger card every time.

I can just imagine the scene 50 years from now: One day, a Froger executive is lamenting on the downfall of Froger. "What happened?" he asks his team of accountants. "Well sir, looks like there was an overabundance of Froger cards being given out at the Froger in Katy, Texas."

I'm not sure how this is going to play out, but slowly the Champion of Consumers will continue to tick away at Froger, one ten cent Froger card at a time.

Until then, shhh - I got a Froger card.