This month I’m on a rant! I’m p-o’d at the National Store of China (aka. Wal-Mart) and I’ll tell you why… but first let me back track a bit.
Like other VW owners, I am also a collector of VW toys, paraphernalia and die-cast VW’s and of course anything “Herbie.”
When I found out about the huge radio controlled Herbie car I wanted one. Unfortunately when they came out I was jobless and it wasn’t high on my priority list. Then when I got a job I couldn’t find them. The only ones I could find were on ebay and going for over $150. Definitely out of my price range. I figured I would just have to wait until one day when the stars were aligned, the wind was blowing just right and the Braves won another World Series before I would be able to find one at a more reasonable price. In other words it seemed destined to be one of those things that I wasn’t going to be able to get.
Right before the holidays I thought I might luck out. I figured Wal-Mart would carry them for the Christmas season. I went to every Wal-Mart in my area almost nightly hoping to find one, but all I could find was the green or orange Type II seen in the Herbie Fully Loaded movie. While I would have loved to have one of those, it was the Herbie car itself that was my goal.
Christmas came and went and still no RC Herbie’s to be found. Two days
later I happened to be in Wal-Mart and on an end cap sat three of the prized toys on sale for $99! Even though I only had $12 in my pocket, I was overjoyed and promptly put one in my cart and headed to lay-away. Inside I could feel my chest puffed out a little in triumph!
Finally the prize I sought would be mine! The hair on my neck tingled in anticipation. As I made my way to lay-away I realized I had not felt this way since my early childhood when I couldn’t sleep for days before Christmas. As I turned down the aisle to lay-away I had a sudden sense of foreboding - the lights were out and as I got near my dread was realized – the lights were out, no clerks were at the registered. Frantic I accosted an employee coming from the back. “Is lay-away closed?” I asked. “Yes,” came the curt reply, “until the first of the year.” Oh no! A sudden pain in my chest as I was suddenly deflated by the news! “How can that be?” I asked the disappearing employee, who seemed not to hear me. He just shrugged his arms and walked on.
Over the next few minutes the pain changed to anger and then rage. How and why can the nations number one retail store close down an entire department right after Christmas! Absurd! And they complain about profits being down! Well of course they’ll be down, they put obstacles in front of customers making it hard and difficult to spend their money!
Now days later I’m counting down the minutes until my next pay day and just praying my RC Herbie will still be on the shelf when the calendar turns. The pain and the anger are gone but the dull ache of defeat remains – all because of a toy and a store that wasn’t customer friendly!

Update:
I’m all smiles now ‘ cause they still had three of the RC Herbies when I went back on January 1st. I put all three in layaway! It made quite a buzz in the Layaway department when I wheeled in my cart filled with the three Herbies. Turned out two of the clerks had aircooled VWs and after talking ‘Volkswageneese’ with them for thirty minutes I finally got out of there with a smile on my face and a hole in my wallet. I’m so excited about my Herbie’s I can hardly see straight!
-Charlton (a.k.a. “Bugz”)