Saturday, December 09, 2017

The Mall at Christmas Time


I generally avoid shopping malls between the middle of November and about a week after New Years.  Having worked retail for the better part of a year, I know that the holiday rush ends with returns about a week after New Years. 

Yes, I worked retail, the year we moved to Kentucky I needed to fill time until Law School started 14 months later.  I wanted something mindless, that would keep me busy and where I could buy health insurance through my employer.  McAplins, part of Mercantile Stores, now a part of Macy's offered me a job, and I sold ladies shoes for 9 months.  I am glad I did it, glad I didn't make a career of it (the company was looking for management candidates.)  I even picked up a scholarship of a $2,000 from the store for my first year of law school.  It was mindless and physically challenging work.  I learned that you never shop at holiday time, and never pay retail, everything goes on sale sooner or later.  

Last weekend I broke my rule of not going to the mall at holiday time.  I was running low on shower gel, one of the few things I go to the mall for.  I was underwhelmed by the decorations, and no seasonal music was playing.  I remember shopping malls of my childhood being over decorated and blaring Jingle Bells until your brain turned to mush.  

I had a nice walk about, looked at more overpriced watches, and stood in line for 20 minutes to pay for a two month supply of my favorite shower gel.  I will be clean and smell better for a couple of months.  

Do you go to the mall at Christmas time? 

12 comments:

  1. Hell no! I work for Bloomingdales though, so if I do need something, it's at my finger tips , or I can get to the stores I need quick, knowing what hours the busy times are. Malls have cut back with Christmas décor mostly because of the property managements hurting budgets....especially since so many malls are losing tentents quickly. King of Prussia is one of the few malls I know of that is full...of course it is also all luxury store. But unless I'm at work I don't do malls. I shop one or two stores like Banana Republic and other designers....everything else from locally owned shops.

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  2. haven't been inside a shopping mall in prob 15-20 years. I detest shopping for anything other than groceries. if I need something, a local store or online works just fine for me.

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    1. PS - is that pentagon city mall in your pix?

      PPS - round here, if you go to the king of prussia mall, you are likely to get carjacked/mugged/shot/robbed. no thanks.

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    2. Don't forget, groped!

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  3. Yes, Pentagon City Mall, the Nordstrom's end, they relocated the escalators a couple of years ago. I took the Metro there and back, I live about five miles south of there.

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    1. thought so; so easy to take metro there!

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  4. I actually like shopping malls at Christmas time. I go in the mornings when they open and am out well before noon. It’s surprising how few people are there at opening as compared to noon. Last I was in Philly in early November I spent a day at King of Prussia mall and loved it . That place is huge. I even stopped into Tiffany and had the wedding band polished before picking up a bargain of a fabulous new houndstooth wool/silk sport coat in Macy’s clearance center.

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    1. I will say the King Of Prussia Mall they do keep pristine and everything is there.

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  5. Absolutely not! I don't celebrate but I did work for Mervyns for two years. During that time, I discovered that the public is an ugly animal, especially at Christmas. How does a person get angry for having to wait in a line on Christmas Eve? Really!

    Hubby makes out at the Penney's sales in January, though.

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  6. I always avoided the malls this time of year ... like the plague! I once worked a Christmas season at the men's fragrance counter of Macy's Herald Square. It nearly put me off Christmas for life.

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  7. The very thought of such a thing takes me back more than 30 years to the time I was foolish enough to try doing a whole bunch of Christmas shopping on behalf of partner and myself. In a shopping mall. With screaming kids etc.
    So when a shop assistant gave me change for $10 instead of the 50 I'd given her I was not too happy. I tried pointing out politely that I had given her a fifty, but she insisted it was a ten, so I said if she did not give me change for a fifty right now, I was going to scream, and keep screaming until she did so. She looked at all the people in the shop and I opened my mouth, only too ready to scream. I got my rightful change.
    And never again will I enter a mall at Christmas...

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  8. I am missing christmas spirit. I think I will go to the mall to see if they have any.

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