Surreal

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Since seeing the price spikes at my local store I sort of worked myself into a tizzy that I needed to add more food to my stash. It was killing me that hordes of people were in a shopping a mania. I was going to wait until Monday but I kept worrying about the shelves all gutting out. I decided to brave the shopping mania. I was just going to go to K-Mart and pick up some more Castleberry Stew. I left my cell phone at home so it couldn't be snatched from my purse, I went without cosmetics and in old sweat pants to just not be noticed.

I was driving along the main street. No one was out. Not only was I not dealing with traffic it was an abnormally low amount of traffic. It was like a ghost town. Okay, just my area I concluded, and kept going into the next city. There wasn't any traffic. No one was at the fast foods, no one was at the restaurants, no one was at the grocery stores, ecetera. I passed a Target which appeared to have a lot of business. I pulled into K-Marts lot and it was a quiet crowd. I parked up near the front. Inside it was not busy. Most people were normal shoppers looking for deals on soap and t.p. A few were there to make a purchase for Christmas but it was like one box of bulbs or one big red bow. I was the only one in the canned good section.

I decided to brave the very Pic N Save that I had mentioned in a post that was so packed no one could breath before Thanksgiving. It was normal. No rush. No crowd of mania shoppers. I and one other shopper stood looking at the canned goods. Once again the people doing any Christmas shopping were buying one or two items only.

I headed on down to Smart & Final frankly starting to weird out. I and two different fast food employees were the customers. Oh, and one Hispanic woman with her daughter buying two gallons of fruit punch syrup.

If it hadn't been for a couple of eye witnesses on the greenspun boards, to have seen somewhere in this huge nation "shopper mania" I'd be claiming the media is either pulling up old film, or is simply making its own scenes of "holiday shopping" complete with professional actors.

No one was out there. I feel weirded out. Things are not making any sense. There's no "shopping mania" in my area or the next area. None by any wild stretch of the imagination.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 28, 1999

Answers

Paula, you are such a trip! If I were on the West coast I'd wanna go shopping with ya! Keep the reports coming! PS--I wanted to hit the store today, cause the turkey ran out yesterday, but too pooped:-)

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), November 28, 1999.

Thanks for the pure JOY you add to my day 'chowbabe'. A breath of fresh air around here, believe me.

-- you kill me Paula (numero_unof@an.com), November 28, 1999.

Nope, no crowds here, either. Actually, they were all at the crafts sale at the Heritage Center. Mrs. Santa Claus was reading to the children and Santa showed up outside. The grocery was empty and there weren't too many at the hibiscus show. Gorgeous day though.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), November 28, 1999.

Paula,

I don't know you well so I am not sure where you coming from. If your post is serious, I would seek some friends out to help you sort out your problems.

You need to come back to the real world. Maybe you will die with Y2K thing and maybe not but you are going to die someday. No sense in living each day with such fear.

-- the Virginian (1@1.com), November 28, 1999.


Went to BJ's in S. NJ. No sign of Y2k preps except they reconfigured their soda and beer isle to accomodate 5 skids of sport bottle poland spring. Don't know if they are expecting a rush or not.

-- walrus (eggman@father.McKenzie), November 28, 1999.


Dear Paula, The "shopping mania" being reported on is for the useless baubles at Nieman Marcus, Macy's, Major Malls.....K Mart & PakNSave are'nt exactly major gift-buying places.

Besides, most folks are traveling this weekend, or hiding out watching foorball..or playing computer games or sleeping or copulating. It's easy to "trip" on this Y2K thing, but after you've gotten your preps together (for however long you feel comfortable for, or for whatever you can afford), you're basically DONE, except for the mental preparation.

Right now, it's just about friends & family. Do you want to go disco dancing with me? Sweet dreams...

-- IPete (incredulous@onebox.com), November 28, 1999.


chowbabe,

what were the ethnicities of the two fast-food workers (as you felt it was necessary to mention the Hispanic woman and daughter)?

Racism is thought and action based on thinking in terms of "race."

-- RZN (nobody@erehw.on), November 29, 1999.


Someone told me there was a "blue light special" on canned baby corn at K-Mart. It was down to some incredibly low price, like 20 cents a can - but only for a short period of time. Some people started pushing and shoving and some nearby jars of caponata fell on the floor and smashed. People started losing their footing and it was like antipasto in the aisles. I didn't see it, but I can imagine.

-- (filene@basement.com), November 29, 1999.

Paula,

The media says that stores are slammed with shoppers, etc. etc. They do this every year! It's all Christmas time propaganda to try and get people to buy stuff. Then in Feb. or Mar. of the following year we all hear how bad business really was in Christmas. BTW The last really booming Christmas season I remember for businesses was in 1988.

-- Ocotillo (peeling@out.===), November 29, 1999.


For any new readers out there: please remember that Paula - like all of us - has a limited world view and isn't party to any Great Secrets. Paula has real literary talent, but don't confuse slick presentation with meaningful content. I can't see anything useful in this message: it's just exaggeration for effect. Paula is crying wolf ("price spikes at my local store") and then pretending innocence ("like a ghost town"). This is typical of her posts. Please take care.

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 29, 1999.


Colin=Wanker

Colin, nobody wants to hear your two cents on every subject, especially your a$$face replies to something you have no clue about. When we have a discussion on beer, ale, and Guinness, please feel free to chime in, otherwise your asinine comments are not needed on EVERY thread. Are you like 14 years old??? You act like it.

growlin'...

The Dog

-- The Dog (dogdesert@hotmail.com), November 29, 1999.


RZN, Hispanics in SoCA are the majority race and thus representing the "herd, sheeple, populace, masses ecetera" here. If you want to watch "the masses" you have to monitor the Hispanics movements.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 29, 1999.

IPete,

I had passed Mervyn's, Millers' Outpost ecetera, and those parking lots were almost bare. Target was the only one doing a bit of brisk business, but not to the point of cars driving endlessly up and down looking for a parking space.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 29, 1999.


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