Shopping Tutorial

I'm an After-Christmas shopper. I love to hit all the bargains the day after Christmas (Boxing Day, for our English and Canadian friends) and stash items away for the next year. I find wonderful prices on gifts.

I missed out on the after-Christmas sales last year, so I'm making up for it this year. I spent Boxing Day at home, except for one little venture out to Big Lots for gift bags and tissue paper for next year, but hit the stores in force on the 27th. Two full days of shopping and I'm ready to drop.

My father always encourages my mother to do this After-Christmas shopping. He told me that she didn't do it one year and Christmas cost them twice as much as usual the next year. One year my mother was taking care of a sick sister in Canada and missed Christmas and the shopping that followed. Dad discussed it with me during the day on Christmas and decided he should hit the stores in Mama's place with me. We planned our attack strategy, I picked him up the next morning at 6:45, and we headed out. Macy's was first on our list. We stood outside the doors in the pre-dawn twilight and cold chatting with other shoppers. When the doors opened, we rushed in and headed straight for the Christmas decorations. We split up. I quickly grabbed a basket that held ornaments under one of the trees, dumped the ornaments into another basket, and began filling mine with the ones I wanted to purchase. About 15 minutes later, Daddy found me.

"Where'd you get that basket, hon?" he asked. I explained how I had obtained my shopping basket. He sucked his breath in audibly.

"Are you sure that's okay?" His voice sounded very uncertain.

"Papa, look around," I directed. Every woman in the store (and my father was the only male) had a similar basket that they were quickly filling. He smiled and began to locate his own "shopping" basket.

A few minutes later, he walked over to me and said quietly, "I wonder how much these ornaments are. I love them, but they don't have a price tag."

"Ask out loud," I directed. He looked at me funny.

"What do you mean, 'Ask out loud'?"

"Ask the question in a loud voice to no one in particular," I prompted, then smiled encouragingly.

Papa, in a loud voice: "Gee, I wonder how much these ornaments cost. They don't have any prices on them."

A woman was kneeling in front of him digging through the baskets under a particularly lovely tree. "I just asked the sales lady and she said they're 50% off, which would make them $2.50, since they were originally $5.00," she volunteered.

Immediately, another woman on the other side of the tree chimed in. "Nope, you're wrong. I overheard your conversation and went and asked the Department Manager who said they're 75% off, so they're only $1.25. Just make sure you tell whoever rings you up that the Manager said they're 75% off," she told my father.

Papa looked at me and grinned. I smiled back. Underneath his breath he whispered, "It REALLY worked!"

When we got ready to check out, we joined the line of 35 or so women. Someone walked up behind me and whispered, "The registers are open in all the departments. You can take your purchases to children's clothing - there's no line there." I thanked her, tapped my father on the shoulder, tossed my head at him and whispered, "Come on!"

We were out of the store in 15 minutes, each ornament we purchased carefully wrapped, not having to wait a single minute to check out. As we headed for the car, Daddy exclaimed, "There's a real art to this Boxing Day Shopping, isn't there? I need to hang out with you more often to learn all the ropes."

We went for coffee on the way to our next stop. By the third store, Daddy was a Pro at After-Christmas shopping. He was very proud of his purchases and seemed to really enjoy himself.

To my knowledge, he's never taken the plunge again but, if he had to, he'd know how.

Of course, he had a great teacher.