Would You Buy A Pregnancy Test For a Buck?

When I write a blog, I have a few rules that I like to follow.

First of all, I hope you find this blog entertaining or on the occasion when I am serious, that it makes you think.

Secondly, I strive to be original.

Well, I'm breaking the second rule with this blog or at least bending it significantly. I'm borrowing a concept I've seen used on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Periodically, that program will collect interesting items purchased at 99-cent stores and Jay will comment on them. I've laughed at my share of improbable merchandise that they've culled from these types of retailers.

Normally, I don't set foot inside these stores. They're just not my thing. But I recently stopped at one of them with my wife, and while checking out with a couple of items, one of the impulse purchase items dangling by the register caught my eye.

It was a pregnancy test.

For a dollar.

I found this so wrong on so many levels.

Why would any store attempt to market a pregnancy test as an impulse purchase?

"Let's see I got me a box of off-brand Ring Dings and a giant bottle of some kind of Dr. Pepper knockoff, so we're all ready for a night of watching the WWE. Oh, hey, there's a pregnancy test kit. I think the old lady said we might need to get one of them. Heck for a buck, I might just get two."

My point is if you need one of these tests -- and most people KNOW when they NEED one of them -- wouldn't you make a special trip just for it? I know I would. I would get in my truck and drive over to Schnucks or Walgreens and track down wherever they are kept in those respective stores. And I will guarantee that you will not find them hanging anywhere near the cashier between a tube of Chapstick and a giant Three-Musketeer bar.

But let's just say, you did buy one of these pregnancy tests at a 99-cent store. Would you actually trust the results of such a life-changing test to an impulse purchase that cost only a buck?

I sure as heck wouldn't. Instead, when I was at Schnucks or Walgreens I would purchase at least one of every tester they offered, no matter the price. Then, I would find a pet store so I could buy a bunny, just in case it might be needed.

I would want to be prepared even though I know the "rabbit test" is no longer in fashion and for good reason.

It must be tricky enough for a woman to pee on a test stick without making a mess, much less aiming for a squirming cottontail sandwiched between her knees who is not too keen about being wizzed on. Science has come a long way.

"Guess what, honey. The test says we're not pregnant. I used both of them you got at the dollar store. Did I miss much of the WWE? Hand me another Ring Ding."

My Google stats keep dropping. I'm now down to 883. However, my Yahoo searches climbed to 2900..

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