The Most Difficult Item to Find in Treasure Valley Stores this Christmas

If your neighborhood is like mine, there were more than a few us outside hanging our Christmas Lights this weekend.  If you're like me, you also learned of a scarcity. 

Like, an incredible scarcity.  I am certain that the most difficult item to find in Treasure Valley stores this Christmas Season has to be one of the essentials for home decoration:  Christmas Light gutter clips.

These little things seem to have been purchased at every store in the Boise, Nampa, and Caldwell area.  I'm not even dramatizing this.

This year, my kiddo decided he wanted our house to be decked in multi-colored lights.  No problem, even though our typical was the all clear traditional C9 lights, I had wanted to move to LEDs and save a bit on electricity.  This jump to multi-color would be the perfect reason to make the jump.

I had stocked up in January on replacement bulbs for the old lights and purchased the last two boxes of gutter clips I could find at Walmart.  I got these as a safety though I had a ton of them for the old lights.

This was proving to be a great purchase as I started to install the new LEDs this year, since they didn't fit the old clips I had been using for years before.  As I set out to string the new lights, two things quickly became clear.  First, the new lights needed MANY more clips than the old ones, and second, I was going to run out before the house was done.

I made a few stops in my neighborhood.  First Walmart, then Fred Meyer, then Walgreens.  No luck at any of those, they were out.  I added D&B Supply, Lowes, another Walmart, a second Fred Meyer, and still no luck.  Added Home Depot, another Walgreens, a third Walmart, and started to understand this was going to be very difficult.

I'll save you the other 5 stops I made, but I have found that these little things are almost totally sold out across the Treasure Valley.

In fact, one salesperson told me since I had "waited so long" and was so "last-minute," I couldn't expect to find any.  Hmm.

I tried the Amazon Prime option (and have them ordered), but without paying $95 for expedited shipping, a Thursday arrival is the best I could get.

If you have tracked these down, or have some in your possession, congratulations.  You've found the hardest item to find in the Treasure Valley.  You also could probably get those things sold for quite a premium.

I "finished" my lights attempting to make a few "fixes" to what I had and thanks to a generous co-worker who spotted me some.  It turned out to be an, "artistic," look this year.