Does this scenario sound familiar to you? You make a special effort to go to a store to purchase an item that is on sale for a great price. Unfortunately, once you arrive you realize that the item is out of stock. When this happens to me I not only feel a bit frustrated, but I almost feel cheated, especially if I would not have gone to this specific store otherwise.
Grocery stores do have an ethical solution to this, which is of course the rain check. They will give you a slip of paper stating the item and its sale price to be redeemed later, when the item is in stock.
My problem is that I never have really gotten the hang of using a rain check. It’s not that they are complicated; I simply must have problems with long-term memory. Most of the time I will make a note on my shopping list that I need to get a rain check for an item. But by the time I get to the checkout I am so eager to pay and be done with my shopping that I entirely forget to ask for a rain check. You would think that when the cashier asks, “Did you find everything okay?” that something would trigger in my brain to remind me to get a rain check.
Only seldom do I get that trigger. At those times I feel so proud of myself as I ask for a rain check for the item or two that I could not find. The people behind me in line scowl. They know they will have to wait for the cashier to flip through the grocery store’s ad until she finds the item that I need, and then fill out the information on a slip of paper. But I am proud nonetheless.
The next problem is actually remembering to use a rain check. If only I used coupons, I might be able to store a rain check with my coupons. But, I am not a coupon-clipper and so it is nearly impossible for me to remember to use a rain check the next time I am grocery shopping. Instead, I will find a couple of rain checks a month later as I am cleaning out my wallet, expired, unused, and unappreciated.