Shopaholics Anonymous

I spent the day after Thanksgiving being thankful that I haven't worked retail in ages. My last retail Christmas Shopping Season was 1991, the year before I went off to graduate school.

Working retail at Christmas time is enough to make the biggest Tiny Tim into a Scrooge. From November 1986 to December 1991, I had nightly nightmares about rude customers and insane co-workers. Then I'd get to work the following day and deal with even ruder customers and even crazier co-workers than the ones I dreamed about.

Today, I got up at 5:40 a.m. to do a bit of quick Christmas shopping. The first half-hour at Parisian wasn't too bad. Only a few stores had opened, and people were still filing into the mall. It started to get a little hectic at JC Penney at 6:30. At 7a.m., Dillards opened, and it wasn't too busy for about half an hour, either, for the same reason. Then, I decided to expand my horizons and head on over to Best Buy, or as I like to call it, The Madhouse.

Our Best Buy is brand spanking new, and it stands alone at the top of a hill next to the mall, where a dairy factory used to be located. It has it's own parking lot, which was completely full. In fact, people had created their own parking spaces randomly around the building, and it was nearly impossible to get around. I found a spot and went inside, only looking for one $10.00 item.

I can't even begin to describe how long the line was at 7:30 a.m. I've seen shorter lines at Cedar Point. It snaked around the ropes, across the front of the store, and up the main center aisle as far as the eye could see. It was enough to give me retail flashbacks for the rest of the day.

So, in the spirit of the busiest shopping day of the year,
The Friday Five.

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not? Not as much as I used to. When I was teaching, I had way too much free time on my hands in the summer, and I'd go shopping every day. I like the social interaction (I don't get out in public much outside of work)
2. What was the last thing you purchased? Can't tell you. Gifts for Jan, Steve, and Cory.
3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why? If I know exactly what I want, I'd rather do it online. It's a lot easier to comparison-shop for the best price when you're sitting at a computer rather than driving all over town.
4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it? I remember getting $0.50 for dusting the house when I was really little. As I got older, I got more. When I was in junior high school, it was $5 a week for dusting the house, and another $5 if I mowed the lawn. Once I started working (1995), I didn't get an allowance any more.
5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing? Earlier this week, I bought Cory a present that's going back to the store. I decided he doesn't really need it. I regret making the purchase because I wasted a perfectly good coupon on it, and I won't get that discount back!