Like many 4 year olds, my daughter is completely consumed by the movie Frozen. The deepest of her love is for the character Elsa. Her and her friends at school have an 'Elsa Club' and she has been declaring "my favorite color is blue like Elsa's; except that my real favorite color is still pink". And, of course, she can sing every word of Let it Go, both Idina Menzel's version and Demi Lovato's version. Oh yes, we have been in a full out Frozen frenzy for the last couple of months.
So much so, that when we were at the Disney store in January we went ahead and pre-ordered the movie. We did this for two reasons:
1.) I thought it would be easier. No worrying if a store is out of stock and then having to make multiple trips to find it. A guarantee to just get it right away.
2.) You got a coupon. $20 off a $40 purchase coupon in fact. Quite the deal.
One thing that our sweet little miss doesn't know is that we are surprising her with a trip to Disney for her birthday in April. So that coupon was going to allow me to buy the Elsa dress for her to wear when she meets her new favorite princess.
I started to notice the day we pre-ordered the movie that Frozen merchandise was becoming scarce in the stores. The displays were getting smaller, nothing was in stock, and of course...no costumes. So, to be safe, I started checking for it more regularly. By checking I mean like losing my mama mind and calling multiple stores on delivery days to see if they got any in, checking obsessively online, searching Etsy for one that wasn't super lame or super expensive. Never any luck. The best advice I continued to get from the stores was to just wait until the release of the movie. They would get all the stuff in then.
So here it is. Tuesday, March 18th. The much anticipated Frozen day. I had to drop Charlotte off at preschool at 9:00am and the mall opened at 10:00. I was going to be there ready to day-after-Thanksgiving-body-slam anyone who got in the way of me and the rack that was sure to house the costume. I couldn't even wait the full hour. I was in the car, Oliver loaded in the stroller, and in the mall at a quarter till 10:00. I eagerly approached the Disney store....where I saw a freaking line wrapped entirely around the store and out the door. Every single person in line waiting to get their movie. Ugh...they opened early.
I can work with this, I thought. As long as they have the dress I can handle the line. I make my way over to a teeny tiny stand littered with a few rogue Frozen items. Really awesome kid items too like coffee cups and adult sized t-shirts. What the hell? I needed an employee. Stat.
"Excuse me mam, where is all the Frozen stuff"?
"Hello Princess!! Everything we have is right on this rack!!"
"Um...this is everything? I have called this store about 712 times over the last 2 months and I was told today would be the day you would finally have Frozen stuff in stock"
"Awe! Well you are looking at everything we have!! Is there anything I can help you find?"
"Well, I was hoping to get an Elsa dress. Again, I was told today would be THE DAY for that. Do you know when you will be getting some in?"
"Well no Princess I don't!!"
"You have got to be kidding me. This is ridiculous."
"Oh I am so sorry to hear that!! Have a magical day!!"
A few points to keep in mind here. It's great to be chipper as a Disney Store employee. My daughter loves it when you call her princess. I, on the other hand, could care less. And when you see I am getting annoyed, the likelihood is that you calling me princess will annoy me more. And another thing; the magical day comment would have been far awesomer had you whipped a costume out from who knows where and presented it to me. Pure magic right there. Other than that it was pretty much BS.
I left the store. I called my Mom to vent. I calmed down, got a coffee, and went back to the store. Where I waited in line for over an hour to pick up an item I already paid for. Did I mention my screaming 2 year old who just wanted to rip every stinking thing off every shelf and tear it open and play with it for 3 and a half seconds before moving on but instead he was trapped in his stroller belting out some blood curdling screams for the gigantic line of people to enjoy? Yeah, he was there too.
The one silver lining was that moment in line when I decided to check online for the costume and they actually had it. In stock. In her size even! I called the hubs to have him make sure it was the good one, you know Disney; there is the good costume everyone wants, and there is the uglier one that people accidentally buy when they think they are buying the first one. The hubs didn't answer so I checked out and called my Mom. She confirmed it was the right one. In stock. In her size! At this point I was pulling into our driveway since we live all of 10 minutes from the mall, and I run in to order it.
You read that right. SOLD OUT. All of 37 seconds later there were none.
Lesson learned. So many lessons learned. Like not to pre-order movies because it saved me absolutely no time or don't hesitate if you find what you think you might want just because you don't want to lose out on the ridiculous shipping charge if it wasn't the right one. Thank you Disney, for always teaching me something new.
