Life Matters

To shop or not to shop, that is the question

By LINDA PETERSEN
Posted 12/5/18

I used to love shopping for Christmas gifts. With a large, extended family, purchases would be made for babies on up to grandparents. The time before Christmas was spent casually browsing through the racks at Ann & Hope, Zayre, Jordan Marsh, Cherry &

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Life Matters

To shop or not to shop, that is the question

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I used to love shopping for Christmas gifts.

With a large, extended family, purchases would be made for babies on up to grandparents. The time before Christmas was spent casually browsing through the racks at Ann & Hope, Zayre, Jordan Marsh, Cherry & Webb and Gladdings. With the “invention” of Midland Mall, and the additional malls that sprang up in Rhode Island, shopping became easier as the stores were all in one spot, and one could shop even if it was raining or freezing outside. I would enjoy leisurely purchasing things right up until Christmas Eve, excited by the wildly colorful decorations, music playing in the background and the bells of the Salvation Army volunteers tinkling. What a joyful time it was to shop before this special family holiday!

Then Black Friday was created…the sale day after Thanksgiving, (a day I did not have off work.) My good friend and I got into the tradition of going shopping Black Friday night. First we would stop at Chelo’s for dinner (a “Jim Dandy” cheeseburger, lemon meringue pie. and a cup of tea with two tea bags for extra caffeine). Then, after the crowds had subdued and just the bargains were left, we would venture head on into the sales, feeling like minnows swimming upstream against the sharks leaving the store.

It was always an exciting adventure! As the years have passed and we have aged, our Black Friday routine has fallen by the wayside. She is retired now and lives in Florida with the other Snowbirds. My son still carries on a Black Friday routine, but he chooses to do it backwards. Because the stores would limit the number of items available for the deeply discounted price, he would be one of the people who stakes out his position in front of his store of choice, sitting in a lawn chair huddled in a blanket, sipping Dunkin Donuts coffee, and chatting with other obsessed shoppers. He finds the rush into the store a “rush”, even though he admits he doesn’t have that much to buy and mainly enjoys the camaraderie of the occasion.

It was only a few years ago that I realized that all of those Black Friday special deals were available “online.” Yes! I could still purchase that 52-inch television for $129, the snow blower for $99 and that double-breasted wooly fake fur coat for $39 without ever having to fight the crowds! While I did miss the shopping aspects, my miserly ways were satisfied. I would boogie from each store’s website to the next, only purchasing those “loss leaders”, the items put up for sale at a deeply discounted price where the store would lose money, but would expect to be made up by the other impulse purchases while in the store. Aha! They would not make any money on ME because my single focus was to get in, buy the desired item, then get out onto the next website. It was the only time my quick computer skills came in handy, doing a whole holiday’s worth of shopping in three hours. My joy of going shopping was replaced by my joy of saving money.

I made sure to decorate the room in which my computer was doing its magic, light a pine-scented candle AND play Christmas music in the background. Instead of my feet hip hopping in time to the music, my fingers did the rumba all over the keyboard as the perfect gift at an unbelievable price filled one of my on-line shopping carts. (Oh, alright…maybe it wasn’t the perfect gift, but if it was a cheap price, one of my relatives would surely like it!)

Possibly shopping on-line does not get me in the Christmas mood as shopping in person. Less glitter and sparkle. Less ambiance and inspiring holiday tunes. Less crowds of people swarming around me, less noise, less overabundance of blinding colors, less stress and less money. Come to think of it, online shopping is just perfect!

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