Nova Scotia

Need a toaster? This pharmacy store manager has 220 more than what she wanted

The PharmaChoice on Waverley Road in Dartmouth, N.S., is trying to offload 222 toasters after its front store manager accidentally placed a huge order. Betty Waffer says she only wanted two toasters, but must've hit the 2 on her keyboard two too many times.

Betty Swaffer wanted just 2 toasters but a couple of accidental keystrokes resulted in a much larger shipment

There are dozens of toasters tucked into every nook and cranny in the PharmaChoice on Waverley Road in Dartmouth, N.S. (Bryan Ray/CBC)

When the delivery vehicle rolled up to the PharmaChoice in Dartmouth, N.S., it became clear to Betty Swaffer that she had made a mistake — or 220 mistakes, to be exact.

The store manager of the Waverley Road pharmacy was shocked to see their normal delivery person start to unload 222 toasters, instead of the two she thought she had ordered.

"I almost fainted," said Swaffer. "I thought, 'What are we going to do with toasters? It's a pharmacy.'"

Swaffer figured she must have accidentally pressed the 2 on her keyboard two too many times.

"I had to take them. I called the companies and they said, no, they couldn't take them back," she said.

Swaffer said she was able to find room for the toasters in her small store by scattering them any place she could find and piling a lot of them in an unused COVID-19 clinic waiting area.

She said people rarely buy toasters from the pharmacy. Even a pair of toasters might gather dust on the shelf for an entire year.

"So the 222, it's going to be a long time," she said.

Toasters stacked in the unused COVID-19 clinic waiting area. The store is selling them at a discounted price in hopes of getting them out the door. (Submitted by Betty Swaffer)

Swaffer recently took to social media to try to offload some of the toasters at a discounted price of $13.99. The toasters usually retail between $26 and $46, but she dropped the price to get them out the door.

As of Friday morning, Swaffer had been able to sell 10, but said people are still coming in to buy them.

"The community here and the people are amazing. Nova Scotia is awesome," she said.

However, the toasters were sold out by 5:30 p.m. AT.

Swaffer said in the future, she will definitely be more cautious when it comes to online purchases.

"Lesson learned," she said. "I don't know where my head was."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Feleshia Chandler is a journalist based in Halifax. She loves helping people tell their stories and has interests in issues surrounding LGBTQ+ people as well as Black, Indigenous and people of colour. You can reach her at feleshia.chandler@cbc.ca.

With files from Carolyn Ray