Happened to be at Borders this afternoon, and the checkout line extended from one corner of the store, over to the opposite corner and then back to the rear wall. This made me nearly physically ill, for two reasons.
1. Thinking about all the stuff people are buying that no one needs, not just at Borders (I love books), but all around the country.
2. What the H-E-double-hockey-sticks are people doing at any sort of retail establishment the day before Christmas Eve? Are they certifiably insane? Reminds me of Yogi Berra’s “No one goes there any more. It’s too crowded.” (In my defense: I was there killing time. I wasn’t going to buy anything.)
Ho. Ho. Ho.
“Happened to be at Borders this afternoon,”
“What the [hell] are people doing at any sort of retail establishment the day before Christmas Eve? Are they certifiably insane?”
Ooo..ouch….
On the other hand, you are witnessing desperation at work, Adam. People who put everything off, who realized they forgot someone, who fear someone they know if giving them a gift has outspent them (the gift-equity game).
Of course, it’s still OFFICIALLY shopping time — it’s Christmas Eve that’s the Last Minute. I recall one Christmas that I know my father did all his shopping at Eckerds (a Florida drug store/general store thing, like Walgreens) at 11:30 pm on Christmas Eve.
On the other hand, I am the Superior Shopper. I had most of it done before december 1, and what wasn’t done by then was done online. I sit back and relax, very self satisfied.
OK I edited my post to indicate: I was there killing time, and in fact I was a little curious to see the lengths people would go to buy things so close to Christmas. I was tempted to go up to the person at the back of the line, practically with their back pressed against the store wall, and ask, “Is it really worth it?”
Don’t you think it’s a little more crazy to wade out into the melee when you don’t need to than for someone to run out and pick up a last minute gift for someone they (theoretically) care about? Not that I don’t do it myself, though.
This is a glass half-full, half-empty scenario. Some people thrive on the last-minute, crack-like fix of last-minute shopping. I’m not one of ’em but I’m related to them. Pretty, it ain’t.
That said, what both pisses me off and encourages me is that when people are totally stumped about last-minute gifts they usually get books. Usually really bad Danielle Steele books, but get them in the door and you can trick them into the edgy stuff.
I know that this is neither wry nor witty, but human beings are, for the most part, crisis-driven. Stores know this, and time their sales and their hours to accommodate the lowest common denominator short-term thinking.
Ooh-ooh. Aah-aah. [throws poop]
Oh, chill out, sweet pea. Sometimes, given the demands of a job, family, etc., you just don’t have time to shop anytime else. Last year, I did all mine in a frenzied 3 hour period on the Friday night before Christmas — it was the only time my husband was available to watch the kid. This year, it was a Saturday afternoon a week and a half prior to Christmas.
However, I must admit to running into B & N Christmas Eve, on our way down to Rockford to see the in-laws, in order to get a book for my nephew. We don’t have any decent bookstore where I live, so my shopping opportunities are limited. Buying the book itself took only a few minutes — it was getting out of the parking lot that took half an hour.