Leaving Riverside today, we stopped at a plaza where I procured some of the best donuts I've ever had. (Genie's Donuts in Riverside. Represent.) As I stood outside the Rite-Aid, waiting for my companions, my eyes fell upon a sign that has destroyed my mind. I regret that I didn't snap a picture of it, but I was too shaken. Posted next to the door were the words, printed on a large red plastic sign, "WE WELCOME ALL SAV-ON CUSTOMERS." (For those not in the know, Rite-Aid and Sav-On are competing drug store chains in the Western U.S.)

I stood, confused. My thoughts stirred feverishly. What possible reasons could this store have for posting this sign? On the first glance, I had thought it had read "coupons" in place of "customers." That wouldn't be uncommon. However, what situation would prompt a store like Rite-Aid to expect that someone who would consider oneself a "Sav-On customer" would feel unwelcome in a Rite-Aid? Does this particular Rite-Aid have a history of past abuses against Sav-On customers? No, of course not. That's absurd.

So what made it seem to whoever had commissioned this sign that this was a prudent - or necessary - strategic advertisement? Every scenario seemed equally ridiculous. Obviously, a store like Rite-Aid wants Sav-On's customers, but implying that they might have reaosn to suspect second-class treatment on the basis not already being a regular Rite-Aid customer seems a peculiar strategy. What if I'm a Walgreen's customer?

As each of my friends trickled out of the store, I asked them if they could come up with an explanation. The best I could get out of them was someone who could see where I was having a problem, though he couldn't see it himself. All the rest couldn't really understand why it was bothering me at all. However, it was really bothering me. A friend suggested that it was merely hospitability. But by extending a specific invitation to Sav-On's customers, doesn't that feel a little exlusive to customers of neither Sav-On nor Rite-Aid?

Driving away, the sign miles behind me, it was still eating at my mind. Now, an hour later, I'm no more satisfied. Perhaps you, dear reader, will be as perplexed as my friends at my own perplexion.

It was thoroughly bizarre.

And why do these stores need to misspell the words in their names?