No, Seriously, We ARE Part of the United States!

Have you ever read the fine print on any TV ad? Yeah, me neither. Until one time last year when I saw a GREAT deal on a K-Mart commercial only to go in and find the item nowhere NEAR the price it was on TV. Thoroughly confused I went to find the flier, which is just a black and white copy by the way, only to see that no such deal existed. WTH? After that I really started paying attention to the fine print on ad, coupons, etc. Know what? With the exception of a FEW ads that state things are available to stores in the contiguous 48 states (Taco Bell!), most single places OUT specifically- Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska, DC, etc. yet not ONE lists that the USVI is excluded. Still, however, we never get the deals or can use coupons. Boo.

Along the same lines, we don't get to participate in any sort of 'meal deals'. Subway's $5 Footlong? Yeah, after 5PM with the purchase of a 21 oz drink. Dominos 3 for $8.88? Not a chance but we CAN get a large 3 topping for the bargain price of $12.99! We don't even have the dollar menu at McDonald's :( and the prices are bordering on airport prices.


We also have quite an issue with online ordering. In the states I took it for granted I could just pick 'IL' in the drop down box and move on with my order. While there are a LOT of stores that make it super-easy (eBay, Old Navy, Victoria's Secret) there are several places that make it next to impossible! For example, Apple. They just refuse to ship here. Um, hello? USPS delivers here. So does FedEx, DHL and UPS. You just can't do it ground! We have a zip code for goodness sakes! Recently, I went on Chase.com to update our mailing address on our checking account, IRA, etc. since the post office is no longer forwarding our things. Well, there was no VI option under states so I tried to change the country from US to US Virgin Islands but it didn't exist. Now I KNOW it does because our savings account has been changed for MONTHS! WTH?

And then there's just people that have NO idea they are in the US. I actually had a table a few months ago that proves this to a tee. They were your average couple in their late 20's, looked pretty well-to-do. Their bill was $12, they gave me a $20, I gave them $8 back. They looked disappointed so I asked what was wrong. Apparently they were hoping to get change in 'St. Thomian' money. What? Really? I tried really hard to not saying anything too sarcastic back so I just replied, 'Um, I did. I gave you dollars. You're in the US.' I found that to be most appropriate for the situation, right? Today I had a table say they were surprised to see so many Americans working here. Again, even the West Indians are American!

I guess it's kind of like the Facts of Life: you take the good, you take the bad. And I believe that the good we get to experience here outweighs the bad. Most of the time, at least :)