fairy tales do come true

Once upon a time there was a girl, a girl who liked to travel to a magical place called Super Targetland. When she would get to Targetland, she would skip through the thick forest into the back of the land called Electronics. In the town of Electronics lived these little, wonderful friends called DSLR cameras. The girl dreamed about the DSLRs, she touched them, she fondled picked them up, she pretended to take photos whenever she could (which was sometimes up to 3 times a week, because this girl loved Targetland).

Then one day, there was a surprise for the girl. One of the cameras was being banished from Targetland, marked with the scarlet clearance sticker of $420. Little Nikon looked so sad and the girl promised to bring him home.

But sadly for the girl, there were these means things called 'bills' and 'mortgage' that had to come before Clearance Nikon.

The girl visited Clearance Nikon often; just checking on him, making sure he was still there. She would make excuses of getting turkey for sandwiches, just to see little Nikon. And so, on one of those trips for turkey or lettuce or diapers, a surveyor Wizard asked if the girl would like to help and get a $15 Targetland gift card for answering some questions, which she answered 'of course, yes', the girl would never say 'no' to a free Targetland card.

The girl thought the survey spell was complete, but then the Wizard continues; 'You can do another, longer 'spell' at home. Here's a good faith $25 gift card for saying yes and you get this Flip Camera for video recording your opinions. ' "Yes, Yes" shouts the girl. The Wizard continues: 'and if you complete the spell within the next week, you will get another $100 gift card.' (Yes, the Girl was amazed as your are.)

The girl takes home the $40 in gift cards and the Flip Camera. She works on the spell almost everyday and it takes way longer than she had hoped, but she continues onward.

One evening, the girl takes a trip to Targetland, with having a little bit of the Targetland money, she dreams that she might someday afford Clearance Nikon. She heads through the forest only to see devastation, Nikon is gone.

The girl is sad, so sad. She finishes the 'spell', gets her $100 gift card and sells her new Flip camera on craigslist for another $100. She had in her hand $240 of gift cards and money with nowhere to go. It sits in her drawer.

Then one evening, the girl decides to ask one of the knights behind the counter of the town of Electronics where Clearance Nikon might have gone. He tells the girl it is gone, but that there is another Nikon in a nearby town. "The chances of it being there are slim, since it's the last one, but give them a call".

And so the girl does and it is gone, but the knight on the phone say "there might be one more at another store, but probably not since it's now $349 on clearance". The girl swooned at the news. She called yet again, the third Targetland. The knight answered and said "Yes, we have it, but it's the display model, so you would get an additional 30% off for buying the display."

Too make a long story shorter, the girl drove her minivan as fast as she could chariot to Targetland that evening, picked up Nikon for $244.97 and after her 'spell' money of $240 she only had to pay $4.97 out-of-pocket for her new little DSLR friend, Nikon D40.

The moral of the story: 'Good things come to those who wait'.

Nah, really the moral is if you are at Target on Food Sample Saturday buy one of the samples, flaunt it around so some *important* people might know you are getting it and when asked to do a survey because you purchases said sample product, say 'yes'. For goodness sakes, say 'yes!'