I reneged on a vow I had made to my family on Thanksgiving Day: I set foot in a shopping mall today.
I had said I would do all my Christmas shopping online this year. But a week or two ago, I was watching television with my wife when one of those "every kiss begins with Kay" commercials came on. She mentioned offhand that she wouldn't mind a little bling under the tree. I was surprised, because we don't go anywhere these days which would seem to call for accessorizing, but I figured she is feeling bullish about the possibility of resuming social intercourse sometime in the next 6-9 months, now that the vaccines are trickling out. So I added jewelry to her Christmas list. I poked around on mall-chain-store websites a little bit to assess my comfort level of buying jewelry online, and decided it wasn't sufficiently high for me to to risk it.
Presumably all of you are too organized to do Christmas shopping this late in the season, so you may not be aware that, in non-pandemic times, this week is the absolute most hellish time to Christmas shop. The stores are jam-packed with people but not with merchandise (all the good stuff already having been sold to the more organized and forward-planning contingent back on Black Friday), and a mood of desperation hangs in the air like cheap cigar smoke because, ready or not, Christmas comes roaring up like a freight train this week.
The mall was crowded, but not as badly as it usually would be. I had no trouble finding a place to park. On the way inside, I had to step around a carryout drink container, complete with plastic lid and straw sticking out, which was lying in the middle of the walk. That kind of thing is common at this particular mall, and it's one of the reasons that I loathe the mall experience. What kind of a slob discards a carryout drink in the middle of the sidewalk?
I observed all the things we've now seen many times when shopping for necessities: a sign on the doorway stating that masks are required; a large pump dispenser of hand disinfectant at the entrance; people trying, with varying levels of attentiveness, not to crowd one another. I was inattentive myself at one point, stepping onto an escalator just a couple of steps behind a fellow pedestrian. This was pre-pandemic habit on my part; I rode the distance considerably less than six feet away from him. Fortunately, or not, I don't think he was aware I was that close - and I didn't figure it out, either, until the ride was virtually over.
I guess we all have read that retail stores are suffering because of the pandemic-driven economic slowdown, so I was more aware than usual of foot traffic inside the mall stores. It hit me, in a way it hadn't previously, that malls have winner stores and loser stores. That's not very insightful; but I had never seen such stark visual evidence before. As I strolled along the corridor past the stores, many of them had no shoppers inside at all. But a select few were shopper magnets. And because they all restrict capacity inside their shops now, the popular ones had lines outside. The two longest lines were outside the LuluLemon store and the Apple Store. We looked at LuluLemon once before; seems one can't overstate the appeal of comfortable pants. As for the Apple Store, it always was packed, even before the coronavirus. There also were lines outside Victoria's Secret Pink, Timberland, and a popcorn shop called Garrett's which sells bags of mixed cheese popcorn and caramel corn. It is wildly popular, but I can't eat the stuff: I have an aversion to all salty snacks which are cheese-flavored and artificially orange.
This mall is one of the larger ones in this area, with some five anchor department stores, all of them national chains. One of them, Lord and Taylor, is closing all its stores, including this one. I walked past it and glanced inside. It was eerie. They are liquidating all their merchandise, and nearly all of it is now gone. All I could see were rows of empty shelves, racks and similar display units. From the mall corridor, I could look right through to the back wall, which is virtually impossible to do in a healthy department store. It was like looking at the skeleton of a capybara after the piranhas had nearly finished with it. I don't think I've ever bought a single item at Lord and Taylor's, but seeing it in its death throes made me feel sad. We've looked before at the decline of department stores. It seems the pandemic is hastening their demise.
So Jim, did you find that special piece of bling? I can totally relate to your wife's wish for something along that line. You don't even have to have a place to wear it, it's just fine to wear it at home.
ReplyDeleteHi "Unknown" - whether or not I was successful will become clear in due time. My wife occasionally reads the blog, so one can't be too hasty in revealing all the facts, if you know what I mean.
DeleteLOL, Jim, "unknown" was me. We lost WiFi temporarily and I was typing on my smartphone. Understand about too much reveal.
DeleteI'm staying away from stores as much as possible. My neighbors, the doctor and his wife, invited me over for Christmas dinner. So I'm self-isolating effectively for a week prior. I don't want to transfer the spiky soccer balls from hell between bubbles. My friend, the OR nurse, is scheduled to get his inoculation on Jan 4. MaryAnn's nurse daughter is already scheduled. It's great to see this process starting and a day when all the ladies will need bling again.
ReplyDeleteOne of my kids, who works at a hospital, was supposed to get the first shot last week. But there was some snafu in Illinois, whereby the quantity of doses received fell short of the amount initially promised. (Not sure how that came about. I have cynical hypotheses but no evidence.) I hope she'll get it in the next week or so. Seems the Moderna vaccine also is shipping now. And let's hope others will follow quickly in the approval pipeline.
DeleteOne of my doctor nephews got his shot already. Unfortunately his brother, also a doctor, and his sister who is a PA, got Covid before they could get the shot. Fortunately they recovered or are in the process of doing so. They are holding their breath because the wife of the one who had Covid is pregnant. I don't know if they have figured out yet if it is safe for pregnant moms to get the shot. Also quite a few elderly people in the state are getting the shot.
DeleteNeedless to say our town doesn't have a mall. Oh, they try and call the cluster of stores on the east end of town one. But nah. I used to enjoy going to the big indoor malls when we would visit Omaha, or when we lived in Fort Collins, CO, in the '80s. But they seem to have fallen by the wayside. They just bulldozed what used to be the main one in Omaha. It wasn't pandemic related. It had been moribund for at least a decade. The trend is stand-alone outdoor clusters of chain stores. I would have thought midwestern winters would favor the indoor ones, but I'm sure they are expensive to heat.
ReplyDeleteAnyway yesterday I tried to do my part in supporting main street local businesses. The pharmacy where I had previously gotten maintenance prescriptions had closed due to the owner's retirement (I'm sure the pandemic had something to do with the timing). He had sold his business to CVS, the large chain pharmacy. The customers had the option of going over there, or transferring elsewhere. I chose to go with the remaining locally owned pharmacy. I only have two scripts, and they are zero copay wherever I get them. Husband went with mail order a long time ago, since he has several and they aren't all zero copay. Every so often I get a phone call from my part D provider trying to convince me to go to mail order. And I have zero incentive to do that. The local place has a very nice card and gift section, and a small lunch counter, which isn't open right now due to restrictions. They seem to be doing okay, and were glad to get my business. It didn't seem too risky to be in there, everyone was masked up and distancing. I was absent mindedly standing by the CBD oil display waiting to be checked out. Then I noticed an elderly lady pointedly staring at me, and I moved. I was blocking her way to the CBD supplements. Harder to read cues with masks on.
Bless you for supporting locally owned, non-chain businesses. Even some chain stores can be owned by local merchant franchisees, so they're not all bad. Not sure what the CVS model is, though. As a matter of fact, I use CVS for my own scripts, for the unedifying reason that our insurer insists. They also nag me to switch to mail-order. I always had resisted, because I never minded running out to the store, and life is easier if one doesn't have to plan ahead. But in these times, CVS is offering free delivery, to cut down on foot traffic at the retail stores. They've made delivery so easy that I can't justify not doing it. They send me a text when it's time to renew, and I simply click on a link, press one or two buttons, and the meds show up a day or two later.
DeleteLunch counters were relics of the past around here, even when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s. Probably another thing that McDonalds killed off. Except for one town we lived in when I was in middle school. It was a small town, small enough that people could walk downtown from just about anywhere in the city limits, and the downtown pharmacy had a lunch counter. I used to order cherry cokes.
CVS is okay, I get some things such as cosmetics and hair care there. It's funny, they are always across from Walgreens. I just don't think the big chains should be the exclusive source for pharmacy. The main street place also does delivery and has a drive up window.
DeleteThere was a soda fountain in one of the hometown drug stores when I was a kid. If my grandma picked me up from school I could sometimes talk her into stopping for an ice cream soda.
"the downtown pharmacy had a lunch counter. I used to order cherry cokes."
DeleteThat was how it was when it was in high school. We were in a small town about five miles from a bigger town which was the shopping center of the area. The high school was on the hill above the shopping center. Many local kids went home for lunch. There was a lunch room for the rest of us. I walked down the hill to the pharmacy which had a lunch counter. Ordered my cherry coke, and took it up the street to where my grandma lived in an apartment. Ate lunch with her. Then went back up the hill to school.
I used to do a little tightwad kid math with the only fast food place in town. Ice cream sodas were 25 cents. Floats were 15 cents. So I would order a cherry 7-up float. Basically the same thing as a cherry soda.
DeleteUnrelated, does anyone else's parish sell Oplatki wafers this time of year? The parish bulletin says this about them: "The Oplatki are enjoyed by families, typically right before the Christmas eve meal. Generally the eldest member of the family will begin the ritual by breaking off a piece of the wafer and passing it to another family member with a blessing. This blessing can simply consist of what you desire for your loved one in the coming year, whether it be good health, success, or happiness. The purpose of this act is primarily to express ones unconditional love and forgiveness for each member of their family. The significance of the Oplatki wafer is that it shadows the Eucharistic meal."
ReplyDeleteYes, our parish started selling them, a buck apiece, a few years ago, under the prior pastor. He was Polish so I speculate it may be a Polish custom.
DeleteYes, it is a Polish custom.
DeleteYes. My family had this custom during the family gatherings at Christmas. Of course, not possible during the pandemic. My mother was the last of her generation. She usually initiated. We broke the wafer with the person with the wafer and then that person repeated by breaking with you. After it was done, everyone had a handful of chips. During the breaking, we would repeat a polish phrase equivalent to "may God give you health until this time next year". I couldn't find the phrase in what Google turned up. I guess it was specific to our family or the area from which my mother's parents came. I'll repeat the ritual next year when everyone is immunized.
DeleteI'll take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and beautiful Christmas. Christmas is sometimes sad but it's always beautiful.
"Christmas is sometimes sad but it's always beautiful." Very true! Wishing you a blessed Christmas as well, Stanley.
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