Courtesy of Macy’s

Scott and I were at The Bay yesterday picking up some stuff and I stumbled on two toasting flutes that I fell in love with from Ralph Lauren’s Watchband line.

That line is being discontinued and for whatever reason, the champagne flutes are hard to find.  You can find the martini shakers, bar sets, etc… No flutes.  They’re gorgeous, so I could understand why they may have gone so quickly.

Checking at Sherway – they reported 1 box left, but couldn’t find it, and they weren’t about to sell us the display model.  Queen St – 1 or 2 left; Bloor and Yonge – up to 7 boxes left.  Awesome!  And one was put aside for us.

So we drove from Sherway to Bloor-Yonge thinking we had enough time with a stop at Costco.  Toronto traffic being what it is, we didn’t get to the store until 6:55pm with Scott being told the store was closed – which happens at 7:00pm.  Oh well, the world won’t end.

Today I had a volunteer meeting from 2pm to 6pm so thought I’d go down to the store first.  Leaving at 11:15am I had more than enough time to get to the store.

Nope!  The Toronto Triathalon, some street fair at Lansdowne and Bloor, and a street fair at Yonge-Dundas Square -Traffic was completely snarled in the city.  Lesson learned – I should have taken public transit, which would have given me ample time for everything and less stress.

Two hours later, I got to the store…

To be told they couldn’t find the glasses, despite them being set aside for us supposedly.  They weren’t.

I also had some fun with them asking if I was the groom, to which my response was, “There are two grooms” and then being asked what the bride’s name was, to which my response was “Scott”.  As someone said, “At the gayest Hudson’s Bay in the country?”  Given it’s close proximity to Toronto’s Gay Village on Church St, one would expect them to be more up on alternative relationships.  We certainly had no issues at the Sherway Gardens store.

So I left, feeling disappointed, especially after three or so hours of driving if you count the two trips to the store.

I left and called up Darlene at Sherway Gardens (She’s AWESOME!) and she said that she’d do what she could to find us the flutes. After talking with Darlene, there was a message waiting for me saying, “Oh we found them!”  Great!  I can’t pick them up today…

But I did.  My meeting ended early and I was able to get to the store and…

• Look at the flutes and determine they weren’t scratched or anything.
• The first one looked prefect!
• The second one looked prefect until… I heard a crack when putting the second one away.  &#@%!  Yes, I cracked the flute putting it away!
• Never fear – the store found a replacement flute.  *PHEW*

Here’s the great thing.  We got a massive deal on these – that I didn’t know about until the flutes were rung in. Regularly $85 – taking 80% off for the last box in the store, plus 10% off for the registry – We got them for $16!

Sometimes life throws you some curve balls and challenges, but they’re rewarding.

So that said – if you’re in the market for crystal, stores like The Bay often have some amazing deals on last sets of glassware.  So keep an eye out.