Let The Shopping Begin!
OPEN: JANUS FILE #0210
Yesterday was Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving, the official start of the Christmas shopping season. Although if I'm remembering correctly, "Black Friday" was the name given to the day in 1929 when the stock market took the precipitous nosedive that led to the Great Depression. I find myself at a loss as to why people would want to choose such an appellation for the start of the busiest retail season of the year. But I digress . . .
Now, I did not brave the early bird sales. Quite frankly, I am not one for camping overnight in Best Buy's parking lot, no matter what deals I might be able to obtain at 6:00 AM. Especially when the overnight temperature was hovering close to 0 degrees Celsius, as it was in Louisville Thursday night/Friday morning.
I did, however, brave the malls later in the day. Make that one mall -- Mall St. Matthews. While I am certain that I will be making multiple visits to both Oxmoor Center and Jefferson Mall in the next few weeks, I decided to stick with just one mall today.
As I have mentioned before, Christmas shopping does not faze me. I simply approach it with the same degree of contemplation and serenity that Joe Montana would an oncoming defensive line, and act accordingly. Of course, there are times when I feel that the better approach is to act if I were that oncoming defensive line, and woe to anyone foolish enough to get in my way.
Yesterday was a relatively peaceful day. Purchasing was not the order of the day; rather, my goal today was to get gift ideas for those on my list.
I did have a couple of interesting moments during my sojourn. The first happened as I was walking past Claire's. One salesclerk was standing at the entrance to the store, holding a stack of what I assume were coupons to give to those entering. She also had a less than merry expression on her face, so I slowed down for a moment and said, "Smile! Turn Mr. Frown upside down!"
My comment started to coax a smile from her lips. I glanced down, and I noticed that she was wearing ballerina flats. "Look at it this way," I added. "At least you had the sense to wear a comfortable pair of shoes today." Now that brought a bigger smile, and even a chuckle to her lips.
Later, as I was preparing to make my way out of the mall, I noticed a woman with her daughter just ahead of me. What I noticed most was that she was proving particularly adept at navigating her way through the crowd. I decided that she had a better idea of how to cut through the mob at that moment, and I followed her lead.
At one point, I was close enough that I was able to compliment her on her ability to weave through the pack. "So you decided to follow in my wake?" she asked.
"Hey, it's getting me where I want to go." She couldn’t fault my logic, and was even able to laugh. We talked briefly, and it turns out we did have one thing in common. We both can't stand the clueless plodders who seemed determined to get in your way during this season.
After another minute, we wished each other a good shopping season, as my destination -- the exit -- was in sight. If the rest of the Christmas season is like this, I won't have any complaints.
Well, I won't have many.
CLOSE: JANUS FILE #0210
Yesterday was Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving, the official start of the Christmas shopping season. Although if I'm remembering correctly, "Black Friday" was the name given to the day in 1929 when the stock market took the precipitous nosedive that led to the Great Depression. I find myself at a loss as to why people would want to choose such an appellation for the start of the busiest retail season of the year. But I digress . . .
Now, I did not brave the early bird sales. Quite frankly, I am not one for camping overnight in Best Buy's parking lot, no matter what deals I might be able to obtain at 6:00 AM. Especially when the overnight temperature was hovering close to 0 degrees Celsius, as it was in Louisville Thursday night/Friday morning.
I did, however, brave the malls later in the day. Make that one mall -- Mall St. Matthews. While I am certain that I will be making multiple visits to both Oxmoor Center and Jefferson Mall in the next few weeks, I decided to stick with just one mall today.
As I have mentioned before, Christmas shopping does not faze me. I simply approach it with the same degree of contemplation and serenity that Joe Montana would an oncoming defensive line, and act accordingly. Of course, there are times when I feel that the better approach is to act if I were that oncoming defensive line, and woe to anyone foolish enough to get in my way.
Yesterday was a relatively peaceful day. Purchasing was not the order of the day; rather, my goal today was to get gift ideas for those on my list.
I did have a couple of interesting moments during my sojourn. The first happened as I was walking past Claire's. One salesclerk was standing at the entrance to the store, holding a stack of what I assume were coupons to give to those entering. She also had a less than merry expression on her face, so I slowed down for a moment and said, "Smile! Turn Mr. Frown upside down!"
My comment started to coax a smile from her lips. I glanced down, and I noticed that she was wearing ballerina flats. "Look at it this way," I added. "At least you had the sense to wear a comfortable pair of shoes today." Now that brought a bigger smile, and even a chuckle to her lips.
Later, as I was preparing to make my way out of the mall, I noticed a woman with her daughter just ahead of me. What I noticed most was that she was proving particularly adept at navigating her way through the crowd. I decided that she had a better idea of how to cut through the mob at that moment, and I followed her lead.
At one point, I was close enough that I was able to compliment her on her ability to weave through the pack. "So you decided to follow in my wake?" she asked.
"Hey, it's getting me where I want to go." She couldn’t fault my logic, and was even able to laugh. We talked briefly, and it turns out we did have one thing in common. We both can't stand the clueless plodders who seemed determined to get in your way during this season.
After another minute, we wished each other a good shopping season, as my destination -- the exit -- was in sight. If the rest of the Christmas season is like this, I won't have any complaints.
Well, I won't have many.
CLOSE: JANUS FILE #0210