Sunday, May 03, 2009

There's some method to my madness.



This past weekend I went on my normal drugstore run. Rite Aid. Walgreens. Big Lots (I know it's not particularly a drugstore- but they do carry plenty of drugstore items). Longs. The usual.

Over the past few entries I've mentioned that Longs Drugstores are being converted into CVS stores. For a while I was very excited to see that after a long period of whining and griping of the lack of CVS stores in my area. But, then I realized one day after going into a Longs store that I frequent across the street from my college, I noticed the huge volumes of yellow clerance tags. Awesome, right? Sure, I snagged up some great deals (like some HIP balms for dirt cheap) but I noticed something very integral to my daily routine was missing...

BERT'S BEES!!!!!!!!!!

More specifically, the Tomato Complexion Soap and the Tomato Toner. I've been using these products for a few years already. Sometimes I stray and try some new products, but I always come back home to these. The toner is especially my favorite. It's very gentle, doesn't dry my skin out, and gets every speck of dirt or makeup that may be left on my skin. Usually if I was running low on something, I would hop on over to one of the two Longs stores that I'm closest to and pick some up. But with the new CVS empire moving in, I noticed at my normal haunts that these items were nowhere to be seen, but other BB items still stocked the shelves.

It was clear.

I was on a mission.

No lie, I probably went to about half a dozen Longs stores in search of at least ONE bottle of toner or ONE box of soap to hold me over. No. Nothing. That was until Saturday when I went to the Longs store closest to the mall and made a bee line (no pun intended) to the Burt's Bees shelves. I swear I would have dropped to my knees and thanked the heavens!!! There were three of each product still on the shelf.

And I was just in time, too. There on each of the labels was a little tag saying DISC. Oh, that dreaded word: discontinued. One time I overheard an employee tell a lady (who was looking for something specific) that they were getting rid of a lot of things for this conversion. So, I did the only thing I could do and threw the three bottles and three boxes into my cart, and clean them out. Sure, it cost a pretty penny, and I had never spent that much at a drugstore before, but it was so well worth it.

After I finish up this stash, the only place I'll be able to purchase these (other than online) is at Whole Foods. I'm not looking forward to that, not that I don't like WF or anything- but it is kind of out of my way for me. And, chances are I'll probably end up buying more than Burt's Bees and leave with vegan chocolate chip cookies and delicious cheeses :)


Is there any one product that you would drive all over town for? What would you do (or have you done) if the store stopped carrying it?

7 comments:

AskMeWhats said...

LOL reading your story makes me thought about myself! I was in highschool and there's this product from Bonne Bell called ten-o-six? It's a facial wash and it's not available everywhere but just one "high end" expensive place down here in the Philippines. (when I was in H.S. US skincare brands can only be seen in glossy magazines) Because this specific ten-o-six facial wash works for my "oh so pimply skin", me and my mom took a public transport to go all the way to stock up...like 3-5 bottles! LOL and that was the last purchase because it went OOS forever! Not sure if its discontinued there, but it was never seen or "heard" from then on! LOL Thank goodness I don't depend on them no more :D

Mukho said...

Hi Tanya! :)
I've been driving around town like crazy too, but haven't been able to lay my hands on a Max Factor twist up eyeliner in Black yet... tough luck for me :( my old stick ran out last month. I don't know, they always keep understocked on the black liners. Happened to me once before too.

Share said...
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Anonymous said...

You can always order the stuff from the Burt's Bees website. I personally LOVE the Rosewater Glycerin toner as my mixing medium. I can't find that ANYWHERE near me, but I can always get it from the interwebs!!

G. said...

I swear I've seen at least the Tomato soap at my Walgreens! And I think at Target too? Am I imagining things? Or maybe I'm getting it confused with the Lettuce soap. Now the toner, I agree, is harder to find, so maybe ebay is your best bet? The one thing I would be hysterical to no longer find in my area is Kiss My Face Moisture Shave. Every time I got to the drugstore I tremble in fear that they've discontinued it but so far so good :) Also, it's hard to find my Giovanni Leave-in conditioner, despite the fact that just about every drugstore now carries Giovanni products. For some reason only a select few chains have decided to carry the leave-in (Long's being one of them, darnit!), but thank goodness they have it at drugstore.com in case it goes away completely here. But bottom line, I feel your pain, sister! :)

Pink Sith said...

YEA!!! Haul!
I stocked up on Bliss Super Minty Body Wash and Sleeping Peel Cleanser when they discontinued it. I found it on line for $6 a bottle and $8 a tube respectively. I snatched up 8 of each. I keep them in my fridge. Husband does not complain tho, b/c the Minty wash is for him. He sings, to the tune of Jesus Christ Super Star, "Minty Butt, Minty But. Oh How I love my Minty Butt" in the shower. He would die if he know I told you all this! LMAO!

claudia m. said...

I did the same thing for them!!! I did go one step further, or crazier, actually. I live in Houston and drove everywhere, including 2 Whole Foods stores, and couldn't find the tomato products. I finally had my friends and family on the lookout (seriously). One of my friends called me cracking up because she found some in one of our suburbs, about 20mins away. I told her to stay there and keep guard, but they had plenty. I actually switched to neutrogena stress acne products, BB stopped working for me =( Maybe I'll try them again, just for the nostalgia...