OK, so you’ve finally finished holiday shopping for the day, you’re back is breaking, and your arms are shackled with all the presents you just found. The handles of the already filled shopping bags (from the previous stores) are now digging into your only free hand, and so you’re eager to get on the checkout line and make a quick exit.
Think again. This is an impossible task during holiday season, so like all the other tired and cranky shoppers, you get on the line to wait, but only to wait some more. Your’e exhausted and want to leave, but you know you can’t, certainly not after painstakingly selecting all those great picks for your family and friends.
So you stand there on the checkout line, and start checking out what all the other people bought, and start thinking if you bought everything you need and want, and if you’re even happy with your purchases.
Either way, you’re not getting off the line, you must tough it out, so you just continue to wait. Then it happens. Your mind begins to wander and you float off into that zone…you know that empty stare, that glazed-over look that really resembles a zombie more than a person with a soul. Once you’ve entered this checked- out state, you are void of any intelligent thought. All you can repeatedly think about is going home, until your mind wanders off once again.
So when exactly did we cross over from the jaunty jolly to the tired and worn out? Holiday shopping is exhausting. Crowded malls, intolerable long lines, and shopper’s rage can dim the soothing music very quickly. The sheer volume of people can be unbearable and the checkout linescan sometimes be the most agonizing and stressful.
If only the stores could simplify the checkoutand have roaming salespeople equipped with hand-held card swiping machines, thereby reducing the wait time. Wait a minute, there already is such a genius system. But it’s only at the Apple store. Ugh.
Maybe one day, in a perfect world, holiday shoppingcan be painless. A girl can dream, can’t she?
How is your holiday shopping going? Check in with me, I would love to hear from you.
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