Stephanie Courtney (posted below) reminded me of one of my own stories

[christopher575]

Sometimes dollar stores try to act like they're regular stores that have regular things and they just happen to be able to get them really cheap. This isn't true, though. They have weird stuff. Sometimes you can go through an entire dollar store without finding a single product you recognize.

One time I was at one in Albuquerque and I bet myself that I couldn't find a single "real" product. I looked all around and finally spotted a familiar blue bottle a few aisles over. It looked like Downy, but I couldn't be sure without getting closer.

I made my way over, and it was indeed Downy. But the label was in Spanish.

...

There's also a story about this story. A little background is in order. When I first moved to Seattle I wasn't the guy who always knows where to go and what to order. I was the new guy who didn't know anything and always said something stupid. And my coworkers loved to make fun of me for it. One time I told the story above, which I think is funny, and they all sat there with a look that said, "Go ahead and tell the rest of it!" They didn't see the humor in it at all, and whenever they wanted to imply that something someone said wasn't funny from that point on they'd just say, "...and the Downy, was in Spanish!"

Oh, and the term for an unfunny story became "Spanish Downy Story".

I actually had a friend back in Albuquerque go to that store, get me a bottle, and ship it up here. It was my, "you may have won this round, but I've got the trophy" desk item. I gave it to one of my better friends in the office when I was laid off. I wonder if she still has it.

Comments

My family has another term for that

[cattycritic.livejournal.com]

My stepdad's dad is kind of weird, and I guess maybe a couple of years after my mom and my stepdad got married, they had Ron's parents over for dinner. His dad told this story, which he clearly thought was great about when they took "little Ronnie" to a Morrison's Cafeteria for the first time. He said, 'and you know, little Ronnie got in line and saw the man cutting up this giant roast beef, and he said 'I want that!' and I said, 'now Ronnie, that slice of beef is too big for you!' But he just had to have that roast beef. So we got it for him, and he ate it!"

So we always called those "roast beef stories."

[wring.livejournal.com]

LOL!!!! I love it.

[monsterbrain.livejournal.com]

I thought it was funny.

Your coworkers were jerks.

[mika-says.livejournal.com]

I like dollar stores specifically because of all the weird stuff in them.

LULZ

[eskanto]

some dollar stores are worse about it than others.

Dollar Tree is egregious. Nearly everything is off-brand, and weird trial-size versions of name brand stuff.