It's not every day you get to see a bunch of Hello Kitty Squashmallows at work :P
Let's just say that a trip to Costco ended up being a trip to create the largest plushy family I have ever seen.
“Do anything, but let it produce joy.” - Walt Whitman
The Idea
When I started working at Costco about a year ago from today, little did I know I would be into this Squashmallow family! At first, I had gotten a 15'' cat Squashmallow that we had for a limited time. A couple of months later, the Star Wars Squashmallows were in stock and almost out within minutes. I first saw the 20'' Baby Yoda Squashmallow when my supervisor (redacted) checked out in my lane and asked if there were any left. Unfortunately, there weren't, so I persisted in the days after and kept checking our inventory and transit lists.
About a week or so later, we had restocked on the entire Squashmallow inventory, and I knew I had to get my hands on them. When there weren't so many members early in the shift, I had asked one of my supervisors to check to see if the Baby Yoda Squashmallow was in stock. Luckily my supervisor was also waiting to get his hands on it for his daughter, so he asked to get one for him as well.
Once I saw the pallet of Squashmallows, I immediately went to it, and low and behold, it was indeed restocked with EVERY single character! I brought back two of them, one for me and one for my supervisor, and we held it in an undisclosed place for us to purchase on our break, which happened to be 10 minutes after I acquired them. Once our break was up, we purchased them and headed upstairs to our employee break room to store them. Keep in mind that this was a 20'' plushie, and our employee locker room had small lockers soooo I had to put it in our secondary breakroom/meeting room in the corner.
The Hello Kitty Endeavor
Now jumping to the present day. About two weeks ago, my friend contacted me to see if we had Hello Kitty Squashmallows in stock. At this point, I was on the College Student Retention Program (where I work every other pay period) and was not aware of these being a thing. She asked to see if I could get my hands on it, and I told her that I wasn't working, but I would let my co-workers know that I wanted some.
This week (a week after my friend), my cousin from up north inquired about the Hello Kitty Squashmallows as well and requested to purchase one for her as well since she was coming down for the weekend. Luckily, I called our Administration office to see the inventory listing, and we had them in stock. I headed to work to see, and unfortunately, only three Squashmallows were left, and none of them were the ones my friend and cousin wanted, which was the Scuba Hello Kitty.
I persisted and waited for today to check. I had a blood draw test ordered from my doctor at 11:30 AM, and our warehouse opens at 10:00 AM. With that, I had errands to run with my mom, so we decided to go after my blood draw. Once completed, we went straight to Costco. I called ahead of time to check the availability and was notified that we had just taken some items off the steel and had put them out on the floor, including the Hello Kitty Squashmallow. My mom had something to return, so I parted ways with her when we entered.
Considering that it was a pillow, I headed towards aisles 116-118, where our pillows were located. I asked my co-worker where they were, and she had shown me to them and, least to say, I was delighted to see the ENTIRE PALLET FILLED! I immediately dug through the pile to get the two Squashmallows my friend and cousin wanted.
The Mom & Hello Kitty Encounter
At this point, I was pleased with the Squashmallows I had. My mother and I went to purchase them at the front and once we got to the car, let's just say that she was intrigued and now wanted one as well. So, being the good son that I am, I went back in to purchase another Squshmallow. Let's just say that I checked out another one raised from brows with my co-workers and supervisors. They had asked me what I would do with them and stated that two of them would be given to my friend and cousin whilst the last one I was checking out would be my mom.
Once getting back in the car and heading home, my mom showed off her Hello Kitty Squashmallow to my aunt, a Hello Kitty fan. That conversation then leads to them talking about the Squashmallows and later talking about going back to Costco for more. Low and behold, my aunt came to pick up my mom while I stayed home to clean and do some online technical work. Approximately 30 minutes later, once I had gotten my food ready, I got a text message showing a car FULL of Squashmallows...
Let's just say I was shocked and kind of embarrassed since my co-workers and supervisors know that she is my mom...
Annnnd that's how my plushie family was extended... :')
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