I Suck At Buying A Grill

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts had a tax free weekend this past weekend. In the past, Karen and I have generally waited for this weekend to make what is for us... a big ticket item purchase. This weekend was no different.

On the agenda for this weekend: buying a new grill. Now, I suck at buying a grill. Our previous grill had to be replaced because the knobs literally melted off. I have no idea how that happened. One fateful day last year, when I was cooking on the grill, I went to turn the knob that controlled the flame intensity... and the knob oozed right off. It was interesting.

Thankfully, my town recycles metal. In the meantime, I have been without a grill for what seems like an eternity. It has been especially difficult during this summer because Karen and I generally grill a lot of food.

Granted, I could have purchased a grill at any time since that knob incident. But for anyone who doesn't know me, I like to analyze things... sometimes a little bit too much. (Not to quote my favorite brother-in-law, but "that's what I do".) So naturally, I looked into various grills. And for anyone curious, my previous grill was a present, so I did not need to do any research for it.

For the longest time, I kept debating about getting a Weber grill. Every review I had come across mentioned Weber as being one of the best manufacturers of grills. The products are supposed to be well-built. The down side, of course, is cost. Weber grills are generally more expensive than other grills. I am guessing it is because of its quality brand.

And naturally, I kept my eyes open for any sales on Weber grills this past year. Unfortunately, I never found a deal. So with the upcoming tax free weekend, I decided to just bite the bullet and buy a Weber grill.

I decided to purchase the Weber grill at the local Curry Hardware only because they had the best deal going. They were giving an additional 6.25% discount on all items purchased during the tax free weekend. Plus, I had a $5 reward coupon that came in the mail. Thus, it only made sense to get the grill at Curry Hardware.

So off I went to purchase the Weber grill. Unfortunately, I came to learn that Curry Hardware actually assembles the grills on site. As a result, when you buy the grill, you take the grill right from the store already assembled. Normally, that's not a bad thing, because who really likes to waste time assembling a grill? For me, however, buying the grill already assembled was a problem because I drive a tiny car. As it turns out, even buying the grill in its original manufactured box would have been a problem for my tiny car.

Unable to find an able-bodied friend or relative who owned an SUV or a truck, I then debated about the Weber grill. I returned home to mull over the available options.

After much deliberation, I returned to Curry Hardware to get the smaller portable Weber grill known as the Q 200. The Q 200 may not have been the hulking stand alone behemoth like the other grills, but at least it fit in my car. And realistically, I don't grill for that many people. So the size of the Q 200 probably is enough for my family anyway.

And as it turns out, when I was putting the Weber Q 200 in the trunk of my car after the purchase, some random stranger approached me and complemented me on the grill. He was absolutely in love with the Q 200 and told me how great the product was. I thought it was pretty random, and nice at the same time. After all, it eased my mind to know that I was getting a quality product, even if it was not what I had originally set out to purchase. Of course, this random stranger could have been planted in the parking lot just for these occasions...

All in all, it was a good tax free weekend. And now I can grill again! Sweet!