…long time passin’?
Looks like some of the young girls (young men, soldiers, whatever) have learned something. ’Cause wherever the shoppers are, they’re not in down-scale and middle-class stores today, four days before Christmas.
Had to wait until this morning to restock the much depleted larder, having run out of money on last month’s budget cycle. That budget cycle ended yesterday, and so today was the day to fly out the door and grab the stuff I’ve run out of.
Boy, did I dread it! Shopping right before Christmas: Vast mobs of people, beleaguered parents dragging their sick kids out there to cough in your face and scream in your ears, Mom and Dad as cranky as their sick little kids and taking it out on their fellow drivers, lines all the way back to the butcher counter…UGH!
I needed stuff that I couldn’t get anywhere else than Costco, a real zoo during the run-up to Christmas, and after that I had to make a Walgreen’s run, a Target run, and a Safeway run. Walgreen’s: maybe OK. Target: oh god. Safeway: bring a tent for camping in the butcher’s department.
But nay.
I’d planned to hit Costco the minute it opened at 10:00 a.m., but as usual ran so late I didn’t get there till after 11.
Dear readers: at 11:10 in the morning, NO ONE WAS THERE!
Well. Practically no one.
Gas was selling at a price unheard-of in years, $2.99 a gallon, but there was no line at the gas pumps! In the parking lot, I got a space within easy walking distance of the door, without even hogging one of the usually jammed crip spaces. Inside the store…whaaa? No mobs?
This time last year, the place was just packed—work day or no work day. In the ghetto, work days and nonworkdays are the same, since many of the residents live on one form or another of welfare or disability, while others struggle with “self-employment” or sporadic contract work. Even when jobs are to be had, unemployment rates are astronomical. So normally, neither day of week nor time of day has has any effect on the number of people inside the stores I was visiting.
But unlike last year, it was into that raggedy Costco and out without hassle.
Target: parked right next to the door. Found a bored checkout lady who had no one in front of me.
Across the metaphorical tracks and several miles to the north and east, the same story held true at the Safeway and the Walgreen’s. The Walgreen’s seemed to have more employees than customers.
Both stores were practically giving stuff away. At Walgreen’s I got an object (which shall remain nameless) for my son at about half the putative retail price. Safeway was almost throwing foodstuffs at the few customers wandering through the aisles. There I found one of my favorite wines for less than $8! It normally sells for around $14, plus tax plus tax plus tax. Scored three bottles to take to friends’ houses over the holidays.
So…uhm…where is everybody?
The other day I was over at Scottsdale Fashion Square, home of the rich and the feckless. You couldn’t find a place to park unless you had a crip-space sticker, and even then, your chances were slim. The place was jammed.
Can we hope that Americans all have jobs and so are preparing for the holidays at the most upscale joints in town?
Well. I suppose.
Kinda doubt it, though. The sort of people who shop at my Target and my Costco are not the sort who would shop at Scottsdale Fashion Square under the best of circumstances. My guess is, the (formerly working) poor and the (formerly) middle class simply can’t afford to buy anything just now, anywhere, even at Target or Costco. Meanwhile, them’s who’s got are gettin’.
Are you shopping for Christmas? Did you order it all online? Or maybe you’re done and don’t even need to buy groceries?
Where have all the shoppers gone?
Shoppers in Toronto. Originally posted to Flickr as Alone / Together. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
I still see tons of shoppers in my area… I am avoiding the stores as much as I can now. But after-Christmas… I love shopping those sales and I don’t even mind the crowd.
Malls (etc.) in our area seem quite full also. I did almost all my holiday shopping online, quite happily (and yes, I am shopping — not madly, but not unusually modestly either; my household is fortunate to be among those where all who want to be employed are, at least for now, and more or less as we want, i.e., not ‘underemployed.’ For which, don’t get me wrong, I am grateful, and I know many others aren’t so fortunate). Generally speaking, if I can stay out a retail establishment, I will.
I have to go out for groceries later, which I am kind of dreading. Fortunately, all my gift shopping is done. I got the husband a new shaving brush and a bottle of whiskey, both of which were obtained without any contact with the mall-going public.
I went to Costco on Tuesday and it was exactly how you described it – almost deserted. But now I have plenty of Meyer lemons for various culinary projects. (Mostly homemade limoncello.)
I’ve only gone to Big Lots and Dollar Tree of late and both have been so packed that I left w/out buying anything.
The crowds are so-so around here. Lots of traffic on the roads but the shops are nowhere near as packed as years past it seems. There are definitely more people than usual out and about shopping but I guarantee that there will be the sound of crickets during the days following Xmas. As for my family, this is the first year that we have not celebrated Xmas in any form but we’ve been winding down for years. I am learning through Facebook that there are MANY people out there who are not celebrating either. It appears that many people are rethinking the way they are doing things and WHY they are doing them to begin with and, correspondingly, this will reflect in the numbers of people currently in the shops. Interesting.
I went to the mall on Saturday and had to drive around the parking deck for 10 minutes and the spot I got was geographically the furthest spot possible from where I wanted to be but at least I had a spot. So they’re out there, maybe they were just resting 🙂
I went to Albertsons this morning before 9AM and it was busier than normal.
Next stop was Wal Mart and the place was packed.
Our town really does not wake up until after 10AM, after that the Zombies show up. The ones that lean on their shopping cart and pull cans of corn off the shelves to read the ingredients.
Such is our town and then there are the family reunions that totally block access to what ever you want to get to like this morning when I wanted to pick up 4 5# bags of chicken quarters for the dogs, a whole flock of Pahrumpians who hadn’t seen each other since their last Wal Mart visit circled their buggys right in front of where the bags of chicken were.
Eye contact does not work with these Zombies, they just think you are admiring their clothing.
Saying, ‘ Would you guys mind moving your butts so I can get a couple bags of chicken’? Could be met with armed retaliation, so a polite ‘Beep – Beep’ usually works.
Pahrumpians are crazy as loons and stay happy as long as their food stamps arrive on time and they have 6 rounds in their .38 special stuck down their shorts. Pahrumps unemployment rate is about 28% mostly because there aren’t any jobs and if there were, the applicants could pass a drug test.
Merry Christmas to all.
^could ^couldn’t
LOL! Merry Christmas to you, too, George!
Pahrump! Humbug!!!