Mindless Wandering In the Land Of Retail

I had some free time yesterday so I decided to do a little window shopping.  Why? you ask.  I just don’t know.  I haven’t wandered the aisles of stores in months.  I figured I’d just kill a little time.  As I headed towards the local shopping district I was amazed at the sheer number of cars on the road for a Sunday afternoon.  It almost felt like rush hour.

This area is just south of Seattle and is one of the main destinations for shoppers in the south end of Seattle and all the area suburbs.  It contains a huge mall, a Costco, Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Borders, Barnes and Noble, Babies R Us, Toys R Us, Old Navy, Sears, JC Penney, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Lowes, Home Depot, Gart Sports, and pretty much every other national chain of stores and restaurants and another huge shopping center being built in the same area that will bring even more.

If you are wanting to indulge yourself in a massive consumer orgy, this is the place to go.  Normally when I head down there I try to go during a slow time and get in and out quick.  Yesterday I decided to just immerse myself in it.  Yeah, I had a purpose.  I was looking for the perfect impulse buy.  Why?  I don’t know.  I guess I just had the urge to acquire something new.  (Oh man, that just sounded really pathetic)

I started my retail expedition at a massive car audio tent sale in the parking lot of the mall.  Car Toys puts on an annual event where they put up massive tents (I’ll call them circus tents) with massive amounts of generator power and more car electronics than you have ever seen in one place.  There were probably a few hundred people there at any one time and at least 100 cars with unbelievable car stereo systems in them.  Most of them were cranked up and the sound was deafening.  By the time I got done, my ears were ringing.  I was somewhat mortified to see people bringing their small children and babies in there.  I think they should have put a department of social services employee at the entrance to coldly stare at these parents.  Believe me, we are talking permanent hearing damage for those poor kids.  All that being said, it was a little bit fun to see the crazy stuff that people have done to their cars.  Many of these cars had car audio/video systems in them that were worth far more than the vehicles.  I would guess most of them had at least $5000 invested in them with some well over $20K.  That doesn’t include the value of the cars.  Pretty much every car had at least 4 video screens in them.  They clearly had no function other than to win the “I have more video screens in my car than you do” competition.  One car even had two 23+” screens in it’s trunk.  I can only assume that is for all the crazy tailgating that they do with it.  :) Purchased: NOTHING

After being completely overpowered by subwoofers and people I decided to continue my browsing at Best Buy.  I wandered all through the store, played the PS3 that they had there for a minute, wandered through the computer area trying out all the various laptops and PC’s, hit the home audio section (which seemed strangely very small) and ended up in the car audio section.  The whole time I was there I couldn’t help but think of the article I read last year of the 80 people that all dressed up like Best Buy employees and all went in to Best Buy at the same time.  Purchased: NOTHING

After Best Buy I decided to head over to the HUGE mall.  I hadn’t been there in at least a year and it’s undergoing a major remodel.  It was bought buy Westfield shopping centers a couple years ago and they have embarked on a massive upgrade.  I have to admit it was pretty nice inside and they had added a TON of new stores.  I was amazed at how many people were there.  You would have thought it was the Christmas rush.  As I wandered the mall I kept one eye out for a blank staring trench coat wearing mall rat that might be hell bent on going out in one last blaze of glory but only saw gangsta wannabe’s trying not to trip on their pants that were falling down around their ankles. 

Ahhh.  The Apple store.  I always have a few minutes of good old fashioned salivating when I’m in there.  I finally put my hands on one of those Iphones.  I have to admit I’m really glad that I signed back up for another two years of punishment with Sprint so that I have no options for getting an Iphone.  Since you can only use the Iphone on AT&T, I can safely look at an Iphone with no fear of an impulse purchase.  You know what?  The Iphone really is cool.  I could write 10 pages on all the things they did right with that phone and I only looked at it for a few minutes.  Besides the Iphone, they also had a lot of Mac laptops.  I’d love to have one but the cheapskate in me just can’t spend that much for a computer.  I can buy two Windows based laptops for the price of a Mac.  If the prices were the same, there is no question I’d switch.  Purchased: NOTHING

After spending some time in the Apple store and cleaning up the drool on my shirt, I headed over to the Dell kiosk.  I love going by there to see what’s new and to actually be able to touch and feel the laptops before I’d potentially buy them from Dell.com.  Sadly, there was nothing too exciting at the kiosk.  Unlike the Macs, their pc’s feel really flimsy and plastic.  I guess that’s why they are half price.  Purchased: NOTHING

All that shopping was making me hungry.  There was really only one thing I could do.  Head on over to Mrs. Fields Cookies and spend 5 times as much as I should on a cookie.  Purchased: $3.50 worth of cookies (aka 2 cookies)

With the sugar and fat fueled energy boost I was back in the shopping mood.  Since I’d already hit the stores I was most interested in I figured I’d wander through Sears on my way out of the mall.  Wandering around Sears is not as efficient as browsing through their catalog like I did when I was a kid but it’s much more interactive.  To say I made a bee line to the 3rd floor is an understatement.  I have no desire to look at women’s clothes, which it seems half the store is full of.  The 3rd floor has always been a crowd pleaser with both the electronics and tools taking up the whole floor.  Unfortunately there was nothing new there.  Same wrenches.  Same tv’s.  Same appliances.  I left sadly disappointed that I hadn’t found anything to blow some money on.  Purchased: Nothing

For an impulsive hedonistic shopping trip, this wasn’t turning out too well.  So far all I’d done was bought a couple ridiculous priced cookies.  What is this world coming to?  There was really only one way out of this.  Costco.  I have never ever been to Costco and not found something that I just had to have.  I drove the half mile from the mall to Costco and was met with a line of cars trying to get in.  This is one of, or is, the busiest Costco in the state.  It’s huge and is filled with treasures.  I finally got in the store and headed straight to the electronics section.  22″ widescreen LCD’s for $229?  Ahhhh.  A quad processor PC with 2 gigs of ram and a 24″ screen?  I’m home.  If not for the fact that I’d have a massive money hangover in the morning and my wife would cease all communication with me I would have spent about $5000 there.  In the end I left without even having a food sample.  Purchased: NOTHING

What is wrong with me?  Am I sick?  Am I getting old?  I don’t know.  I suppose my frugal nature was firmly in control as I tempted myself in the land of the retail vultures.  It could have something to do with the fact that we have so many expenses ahead of us as we finish our lake house or just knowing our main house will need a roof in the next couple years or it could be a multitude of other expenses I know are coming.  I do have to admit it was nice not to wake up with a money hangover this morning.