Stores

12/29/2013

In the last two days it has been my privilege (or not) to shop at two department stores.  Notice I didn't say anything about a "mart" store - nope these are stores with big windows, escalators, the whole nine yards. And I was more than a little disappointed with my experiences.

Disclaimer - I know it's mere days since Christmas and all the rush that comes with harried shoppers, so I'm willing to give these two stores a pass (a small one only).  First, in both stores you couldn't have found somebody to help you if your life depended on it.  Customer service? What's that?  I have on occasion found more helpful people at the "mart" stores than a real department store!

In the first store I was a woman on a mission - no browsing - just head to the required department and find something to buy.  Well my first problem was finding something to buy.  Packages were literally piled on top of one another with no organization by size, style, etc.  Then when I did find something I thought I was interested in, at least twice the item inside the package was not the same style/size as the box.  Okay, this was just about the time that my head was ready to spin off out of shear desperation.  I finally settled on a few things to buy and grabbed a piece of paper from some store advertisement and wrote down style numbers and vowed to finish my shopping on line.  Once I was home I was able to finish up my shopping in minutes - no fuss, no aggravation, no parking problems - nothing.  Piece of cake.  I should have known better than to try and actually find something in a store.  I'll remember for the future.

Yesterday, Jeff noticed that a local department store was having a sale on Keurig coffee and the little K-cups are expensive so any sale is worth checking out.  There was a number of things wrong with this shopping expedition.  First, the store was blasting (not exaggerating) music from the loudspeakers.  We didn't stay in the store long enough to determine if the one "oldie" song we heard was a one-off or the genre of the evening.  

The kitchen equipment is on the second floor and I have an inherent dislike of escalators.  Many years ago Jeff and I attended a charity event at a department store that was closed for the evening.  It was a dressy event and I was wearing heels (I was young and looking good was more important than being comfortable - glad I got over that!).  Anyway, on the descent to the first floor I was on the escalator and Jeff was behind me and all of a sudden the escalator went rogue (I'm not kidding) and began speeding up not allowing anyone enough time to get off.  Jeff went ahead of me and started pulling the ladies off before they got to the last step. Nobody was hurt, just shaken.  That may explain why I hate escalators and ttakes me forever to get on and off.

Before we get to the up escalator we have to go through the perfume (I mean odor) department and our noses were assaulted by all the perfume in the air.  We couldn't get upstairs fast enough believe me!  I have worn the same perfume for probably 30 years - Chloe and it's no longer an "in" scent but I don't care.  For fun, I just went out to see if there was any Chloe dusting powder available, because they stopped making the powder a number of years ago.  On Ebay, I found someone who sold a 5.25 oz container of powder for (brace yourself) $159.99!!!! Shipping was free so I'm sure it was a bargain.

Once up in the housewares section, we found the little K-cups for sale - a very limited selection at a very lightly discounted price.  Jeff said he had seen in the paper a box of 48 cups for sale.  Could we find that? Nope.  Did we ask anybody? Nope.  There was one woman manning the cash register and there was quite a line waiting to be checked out.  Did we wait? Nope.  On our way down we braced ourselves for the repeat assault to our noses and didn't even stay for a browse.  Neither of us couldn't get out of the store fast enough.  

These two experiences this week has given me a new appreciation for online shopping!

Happy Sunday.

P