Some months I was worried I’d end up looking like the prom scene! :eek:
@ Dingoel: nice burn!
I wonder how many of those dispensers just sit empty because they keep getting vandalized and the business owners don’t think it’s worth the hassle and why they have Civil War Surplus in them when they are working. No point putting good brand name stuff in them when it’s just going to grow legs and walk away.
I once worked in a pretty iffy part of town where the public restroom was a disaster. The toilet paper was always gone even though the roll holders locked and the paper towel dispensers were replaced with air dryers way before I worked there. The fast food places in the same neighborhood didn’t put condiments or napkins out because otherwise they’d be wiped out as fast as they could refill them.
I once got a small team of total strangers (men!) to buy me some supplies. It’s a good story. Hubby and I were on vacation at a resort in the Dominican Republic when “auntie” came to visit. I hadn’t planned ahead, to my dismay. I went to the little sundries/souvenirs shop at the resort and looked around and didn’t find anything. The barely-English-speaking clerk motioned that he wanted to help me find what I needed, so I had to do an embarrassing and difficult game of charades and broken spanish to ask him if he had any tampons or napkins. When he finally understood, he said he didn’t have anything like that but his brother could get me some.
I don’t recall why hubby and I didn’t just ask for a ride into town to buy my own. But we went to the beach and about an hour later a second guy came along and asked if I was the lady who was waiting for a package. I said yes so he told me to go talk to the bartender (a third guy). I walked over to the bar and that nice man had a small box of tampons in a brown paper bag. I thanked him profusely and gave him about $10 in local currency, hoping that it was enough for both the product and their hassle. That’s when I learned (by reading the package label) that the spanish word for “tampon” is… “tampon”. LOL!
It was also very impressive how discreet all those guys were. They handled it a little bit like a drug deal, but I appreciated that they weren’t yelling and waving things around. They were totally awesome!
At the time, I liked to pretend that person just winked out of existence right after.
I am considerably less squeamish about all of this stuff now, a mom and older and wiser, but for a young teen it was bad. About sending a guy to buy stuff - what’s the big deal (other than product confusion)? It’s not like the clerk will think **he **has his period?
I’ve never had a problem with one not working or not being stocked - although, I will point out that on the remarkably few times (thank God) I’ve needed one (and there has been one handy and no other lady around) the product they contain is, as previously mentioned, some thrilling combination of ancient, marginally operable, or deeply uncomfortable in some fashion. Even the name brand product contained in the vending machines is not of the same quality as what you purchase at the store. It’s very distinctly lower-quality. Even if the packaging appears the same, the contents are not.
It is actually my very first experience with the sandpapery, mattress-thick, pube-ripping pad with extremely questionable adhesive (Why, for the love of tiny green apples, if it could cling with such force to my pubic hair, could it not stick to my panties?) that encouraged me to become absolutely OCD about keeping a handful of my preferred brand in my bag.
I will also say that this is the one area where virtually all women can be counted on to lend a sympathetic and unquestioning hand to another woman in distress. Even if I didn’t share a common language, I’ve offered (and been offered) personal supplies by a lady when one of us was standing giving the machine a resigned look more times than I can count. Heck, once in a while I’ve been offered personal supplies when I just happened to be pausing at the vending machine for an unrelated reason (like there’s a line for the sink).
For years, my job has required me to go out to outdoor work sites on a fairly frequent basis. When I first started this job and was due to make my first site visit, an older woman handed me a small gold-colored key and said “don’t forget this in case you need anything”. I was a little confused but took it.
A few visits later, I still had the key and got curious about what door it opened and what might be hidden there. I found the cabinet in the site boss’s trailer, opened it, and inside were a full complement of feminine items one might need if one were miles from civilization. A note on the inside of the door said ‘if you use it, please replace it’.
I took good care of it over the years, stocking it when it needed it, and passing along the ‘secret’ to all the other women as they came along.
It was great to have that little cache available. Sure beat the heck out of making an emergency trip to town and back - a committment that could take an hour or more in bad weather. Not to mention the razzing I would have had to endure from the crew.
He he he – Mr Boods quietly asked me one day why I’ve never asked him to buy any ‘supplies’ on his various errands; in a bizarre way, he was looking forward to it.
(Having been married before, I just didn’t want to go down this route with Mr Boods #2. No matter what I told my ex, he would come home with something that was ‘way better.’ It wasn’t.)
God no! It was more vague hand-waving, gesturing at my tummy and stuttering guesses at what the Spanish word might be, like sanitario. I think my increasingly embarrassed and pained expression along with more and more stuttering lead him along the path to what I needed. Some things are apparently universal.
They are of questionable brand, quality, style, and era because they’re ordered from paper, janitorial, or industrial supply companies. I used to be a Buyer for a few manufacturing companies and had to keep stock of them. There’s really not any decent alternatives. Normal modern products aren’t offered by the supply companies, nor are they packaged right for the dispensers, and companies wouldn’t pay to have the dispensers retooled or replaced even if they did. And anyway, there would be too many picky people who would rather have super, or plastic, or scented, or thong shaped or whatever. It’s easier to just get something generic that everyone hates. Sad but true!
