Thursday, May 20, 2010

Wood is cheap in Norway

Well given the number of trees, you might think so. And in reality the prices at the DIY centres aren't too bad, but not as cheap as I found today.

We went to town to buy some wood for a little garden project we are working on. The Coop Bygg store in Molde is a fairly new store, and I think they were trawling the bottom of the employment barrel for staff when they employed the young chap who served us.
I had gathered some lengths of wood on a trolley, when 'she who has the overall plan for the garden', managed to find some 50cm x50cm wooden tile thingies that she wants me to do something with, so I piled 9 of them on top of the lengths of wood, and proceeded to the payment point.

This young guy, fresh out of nappies, and about 10 years away from a real shave, looked like he knew what he was doing, and since I try to avoid language confusion, I just stood there with bank card in hand ready to do my bit.
After plinking on his computer, scanning some labels with a bar code scanner, and looking less intelligent than I had originally thought, he came up with a price of 362 kroner. I did think "That's cheaper than I thought it would be", but I didn't know what price the wooden tile thingies  were, so I assumed they were cheaper than I had feared.

So, trolley to car, which was already full from other things, and out with the crosscut saw. Standing in the car park I cut the wood to the sizes I needed, and which would fit into the car. But all the time I was thinking, "Wood really is cheap in Norway".

Only when we were at the ferry terminal did I remember that I had put the receipt in my pocket, so we had a look.
Now, we had bought:
9 wooden tile thingies
25 metres of 50mm x 25mm wood
10 metres of 50mm x 75mm wood
10 metres of 25mm x 100mm wood

The receipt said:
7 wooden tile thingies
10 metres of 50mm x 25mm wood
5 metres of 50mm x 75mm wood
And absolutely no mention of the 25mm x 100mm wood.

Maybe I'll have to be honest about this and return to the store the next day I'm in town. But this guy was so far wrong that he'll likely loose his job if I do that, so I suppose the best I can do is say nothing and hope that the poor chap learns his job before his employer goes bust.

I'll certainly shop with them again. Just in case I get served by the same person. ;)

By the way, there will be a forthcoming blog about those damned wooden tile thingies. They're part of the plan for the 'Reekerie Ooterie". That expression will be explained when the job is done, and I post about it.
;)

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