Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Mall = Third World Marketplace?

We decided to take a trip to the mall this evening to finish up some Christmas shopping. It was a great idea, considering Tuesday night is not a big "finish up your shopping" night. Either that or the economic woes are finally being felt around here. Most of the mall was manageable, just not the restaurants or movies. They were packed!

Em and I were working our way down to Sephora in search of a granny gift when each kiosk employee decided to shove their wares in our faces and practically beg us to smell, touch, try on whatever it was they were attempting to peddle. Poor Em - we don't often take trips to the mall to begin with, but she was completely overwhelmed. She finally asked me why everyone was stepping in our way and what they were trying to do! I just told her to pretend we were in another country at the market. She thought that was a grand idea!

Seriously, though, I've never experienced that feeling at our local mall. In about 100 yards, we smelled an aroma therapy pack, incense, had a toy helicopter nearly land on our heads, have papers shoved in our paths and just as many unhappy salespeople chide us for not wanting to at least try their crazy contraptions. The mall is becoming a circus with hundreds of rings!

When we finally made it to Sephora, Em looked at me and said, "Can I just sit down? I'm tired." Although, that might have been from her peek at "Santa"!

1 comment:

Gracifers said...

Funny you mention that -- I went Wednesday night to run some QUICK errands before class, and I swear every male salesman in that mall was calling me sweetie or gorgeous to try and get my attention. I guess with the failing economy people have to do whatever to get you to buy their products!!

But I've learned that the key is to just not make eye contact!