I have mixed feelings about shopping. Sometimes I love it, finding just the right thing for the right person at the right price. Sometimes it is a chore and I am annoyed by the store, the salespeople, and everything else.
This season I had a good experience but I had to wait until now to tell it because the recipient just opened the gift yesterday.
It was the season of cycling (not shown) and Harry Potter gifts. One set of grandparents gave the illustrated version of the third book, another set gave a Quidditch shirt, and we gave a deck of cards (purchased at the Platform 9 3/4 store in London), two games (purchased at a secondhand sale), and a Quidditch book (purchased at the library's secondhand store). The socks were the big purchase.
I had seen a blog post about great gifts for the season and even though they were a size too small, twelve pairs of socks for $15 seemed like a great deal. Such a great deal that they keep selling out, although you can find them on consumer-to-consumer sites.
I was not planning to pay two- or three-times the price so I looked to see where I could buy them locally. Not far from from home was a store with limited-stock listing. I headed out there only to be told that the limited-stock listing was misleading. I got the full scoop.
Each day a truck arrives and sometimes the socks are on that truck. In that case the listing online shows limited stock for that item for that store. What usually happens is that someone comes in and buys the limited stock and then it is out of stock, but that is not immediately updated online. The trick is to show up at a store at opening time and head right to the sock section. I confirmed this story when I was at a different branch of the same store.
I had a plan. Run, take a very fast shower, check on line for a limited-stock listing, head to the store early, and make a mad dash for the sock section. This is what actually happened.
I got to the store about twenty minutes before opening. Nice to live in a moderate environment where waiting outside is easy. There was already one other person waiting. "Are you waiting to buy Harry Potter socks?" "No!" She seemed a little confused by the question, but that was fine because she was not competition. As an employee headed inside I asked if she thought there were any Harry Potter socks, but she did not thing there would be. Oh no. A bit later another person showed up and I asked the same question and he paused. "I am feeling pretty fast today." Oh no, what if he got there first and bought all of them?? He laughed and said he was not interested in the socks. We chatted for a bit, two more people showed up but I made a quick judgment about them and decided they did not look like competitors.
Then it was eight o'clock. I did not run. I did not elbow anybody. I walked over to the section (that I had scoped out the day before) and did not see any. Darn! Double darn! I found an employee in the area and she said she had not put everything out yet so we walked over to her basket. Bingo! She had four boxes of socks still in their shipping bag. I gave her a big hug and went to the register. I got what I wanted at the price I wanted and now I did not have to go back to try again. Score!
Of course I shared this story and everyone asked the same question. How many sets did I buy? Sorry, it did not occur to me to buy more than one and to sell them to my friends so they didn't have to go through the same thing.
Last night A. opened them and today wore the pair with owls.
Happy holidays, everyone.
