A Wild Goose Chase
When things don't exactly go to plan
When we had our usual morning meeting at work last Tuesday, the news editor asked me, “Katrina, would you like to go shopping today?”.
She explained that someone made a Facebook post complaining that a certain clothes shop, which had an ongoing sale, was covering the original price tag of the clothes with a sticker showcasing a more expensive price, thus allegedly deceiving customers into thinking they got a good deal out of the supposed discount. The previous week had been an incredibly slow one in terms of news, so I was happy to finally be given a good story to work on. I eagerly accepted the task and hopped into my car to visit the shop.
When I got there, I felt like a true investigative reporter. I chose two items at random and took them to the fitting rooms, pretending that I was going to try them on. I then peeled off the price tags and found nothing underneath. So I went up a floor, to the women’s section, and picked out another two items. Again I took them to the fitting rooms, and this time, lo and behold, there was another price tag underneath which displayed a cheaper price. Bingo. I took some photos and then left to head back to the newsroom.
I then called the shop manager for a comment. He explained that the reason they’re re-pricing items is because the original price is that which the items are sold for in Spain, whereas the new price incorporates the shipping costs which are necessary to ship the items to Malta. And just like that, my story fell apart, and my whole morning was wasted on a wild goose chase.
Something similar happened a few days later. One of my colleagues assigned me a story about an organisation who proposed a solution for a barren park that was sparking controversy here in Malta. However, when I phoned the owner of the organisation, he said that he was media-shy and wasn’t interested in speaking to us about the matter. My colleague even tried phoning him himself to see if he could change his mind, but to no avail. And so that was my second story of the week that fell completely flat.
Unfortunately, this is something that tends to happen in the world of journalism, and it sucks because you end up feeling like you wasted your time and energy. But I guess it’s something that I’m going to have to get used to, because my colleagues all reassured me that this was completely normal. At the end of the day, not all leads result in a breakthrough.
Outside of work, the rest of my week was alright. I went out for sushi twice, once with my girlfriend and once with my grandparents, sister and cousins. When I went with my girlfriend, it was my first time ever experiencing a kaitenzushi, which is a Japanese concept where plates of sushi rotate through the restaurant on a conveyor belt, allowing customers to pick out which dishes they went as they pass by. It was pretty darn cool.
And today is the last Sunday before my sister heads back to uni, so my family and I are going out for Indian food. Safe to say I was not deprived of the Asian cuisine this week!
Love,
Katrina