Early Shoppers

This morning, afterwork, I drove up-town to a large shopping mall, to finish my Christmas buying. I arrived at 10am, just as the doors were opening. Already the parking lot contained SUV’s and fancy cars, with more arriving by the minute. In the parking-lot, finely dressed women, with strollers and small chidren, rushed towards the pink pig tent.

Mall excursions always mean aimless wandering and browsing. I like to approach the mall with one goal and then wander through a few more stores while I’m there. However, what I found inside the mall, was not the leisure shoppers of weekends, but a determined, focused core of women.

Most of the women were my age or a little older. All were dressed well, make-up on, ready for the day. They were obviously there to buy and no-one was going to stop them. The intensity of their shopping mission, combined with the store staff’s indiference to shoppers, they were all busy stocking shelves, made me feel consipcuious.

I needed one item from Crate and Barrel, a glass pitcher for SB. While I knew exactly where in the store it was displayed, I also wanted to have a look around. I tried browsing, poking my head into the furniture department, looking at expensive dishware, but I knew I was out of my element among the morning shoppers and soon I grabbed my glass pitcher, and fled.

Whew! There’s no way those ladies had been working the night shift and slacking off on their last-minute Christmas shopping. In the future I’m going to stick with evening and weekend mall outtings, when the crowds are a little more relaxed.