This one's for the ladies

I apologize for the nature of this post, but it's one of those things I can't stop thinking about, particularly one week every month.

You know where I'm going with this, so I'll back up. In our new neighborhood, we are lucky enough to be within walking distance of a Jewel. But the problem is, it's just a Jewel, not a Jewel-Osco. (Osco, being the pharmacy/drug store arm of Jewel.) So, in a half-assed attempt to make up for its Osco deficiency, it devoted about a quarter aisle to all the things you'd find in a drug store — toothpaste, shampoo and foot cream, all crammed onto four shelves. As you can imagine, this forced the Jewel to cut down on the number of brands it offers, and herein lies the problem: This crappy, yet conveniently located grocery store, does not carry my brand of tampons.

I discovered this on a recent shopping trip, which resulted in me agonizing in the aisle for about 20 minutes trying to decide if I should try out a new brand, or buy all our groceries, go home, unload 'em, and then go out to Walgreen's just to get MY brand of tampons. Although I seriously consider the latter, and ultimately went the new-brand route.

Today, I am not a happy camper. There's nothing extremely wrong with the new brand, it's just not what I'm used to. The packaging isn't quite the same, the applicator is slightly different and the shape is all wrong. It's all very upsetting.

It reminds me of this Ad Report Card article I read a while ago about how advertisers try to hook women on their brand at a young age because in general, women stick with one brand for life. Although I've often thought that advertisers must know nothing about me and all the women I know — what with all the horrible commercials I see painting women as vapid, jewelry-obsessed, catty, 92-pound, 19-year-olds — apparently, they got one thing right: I'm a tampon-brand lifer.