Invisible...

For Christmas, Eric and Jodie got me a digital photo storage unit. It turned out to be a really small screen, so we took it back and I exchanged it for a Creative Zen mp3 player.

I decided to try out Napster's "Napster to Go" service. For a monthly subscription, you can download all the music you want onto 3 different players. We went and got two more players, one for Eric and one for Jodie so we could take full advantage of the service.

Yesterday, Jodie and I went shopping to find a "Playdock", so that we can use our players as our home stereo:

Cambridge SoundWorks : A Creative Company - Shop for speakers, in-wall speakers, computer speakers, mp3 players, receivers, dvd players, headphones and more!


I went to the website for the speakers to see where I can buy them locally. I said Fred Meyers and Seguno Technologies in Gresham.

Jodie and I went into Fred Meyers. We took our scooters in and zoomed over to the electronics section. We went over to where the mp3 accessories were. All of the speakers there were for IPOD, nothing for mp3. Nobody offered to help us. A salesman was offering to help others.

We are invisible.

Jodie and I both have cerebral palsy. When we go to stores, many times we can't seem to get any help. I don't know if they assume we have no money because of our disability, or if they don't think they will understand us.

Jodie went to the counter to ask the lady if they had a "Playdock". She had no idea what it was.

We went looking for the Seguno store but could not find it.

I scootered into Office Depot myself. No offer for help. We like shopping there because of their variety and prices, but we have had many episodes there of not getting help unless we chase somebody down. I found the shelf with all the IPOD stuff. After studying it for awhile, I could see they didn't have a mp2 docking speaker system.

I went to Radio Shack. A very young lady pointed me to what they had. I found a small portable speaker set for Jodie to use at work, but all the fancier accessories were for...you know.

Staples was the same as Office Depot. No offer for help, but they did not have what I was looking for. I scootered around the whole store. Nobody said a word to me.

I am invisible.

We went to Circuit City. Jodie and I both went in. A very kind and knowledgeable young man gave us the lowdown. Stores carry the larger ticket IPOD accessories; they don't carry them for non-IPOD players. The demand just is not there. He said that a warehouse store might have one, but a normal store is not going to carry them.

Jodie wanted to look at notebook computers. We cruised around the computer area. Aisle widths and the placements of special displays make getting around stores so difficult, but that is a topic for another post. No one offered to help us in the computer area.

Invisible.

We came home and I ordered "Playdocks" online, probably what I should have done in the beginning.