Calling All Early Morning Shoppers

I have to admit I usually don't venture out of the house very early in the morning.  That's my time to write and I'm doing just that until either an emergency crops up or the dog appears begging mournfully, as only a dog can, for his walk.  Today, however I was shopping.  By 9:30 I was out there with the hordes who were holding the same sale flier tightly in their hands.  I went early to beat the crowd - guess I was out of synch.  Could be because I'm not a shopper and therefore I don't know the rules.  Shopping to me is something that must be done so that I don't starve or run naked in the streets.

So I learned some interesting things.  Apparently shopping is an outing for some people.  Take the two elderly ladies that held up the line while having an avid discussion with the sales clerk, their attention occasionally veering from the cash register to another bauble in their line of vision forcing one or both to drop their wallet and check out the new diversion.  But instead of becoming impatient the others in the line took it with good humour, one woman even turned around and began telling me about her decision to go grey.   Allergic to hair dye, she was now officially grey.   No, I didn't ask any of this - it was voluntarily offered along with my switch from one line to the other in the hope of leaving sooner.  Instead I got a conversation that passed the time.

Onward - Dollarama - one of the many dollar stores that have sprung up over the last decade and one stop shopping for all things craft related.  Everything for a buck or two.  A must for promoting the latest contest For All Time.  But that's another story.

You never know who or what you might find in the aisles of one of these dollar stores.  So with only one cup of coffee under my belt I encountered the woman looking for winter hats.  I'm not sure how I stumbled on her, the winter things must have been tucked in with something else as I usually dodge winter apparel and Christmas decorations (yes those are out too), right up until the very last minute.  There was an odd way that she was turning the knitted hat over in her hands that drew my attention to her.  Unfortunately, my brief flash of interest was intercepted and soon I was a co-conspirator in the quest to determine if the knit hat indeed was tainted with an incurable smell.  Don't ask - let's just say I moved on to the next aisle fairly quickly.

There I discovered a mother with two young sons who were using the aisle as a race trace.  The faster they ran, the more focused she became on her shopping.  When the boys began to shout and one had the other in a headlock it was time to call that aisle quits, leave the woman to her parental duties, and move on. 

So that was the beginning of my day.  It was different and refreshing.  Definitely not my norm.  A brief voyage into another world somehow makes things so much fresher as I return home to expand on the new world developing nicely in the latest story. 
 
 So I was left to consider whether shopping really is a pain or could it evolve into an anticipated excursion leading to any number of unexpected encounters.  Shopping whether by choice or necessity is something we all spend a good chunk of time at - have you met any interesting characters shopping?  Care to share? 


Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com
For All Time - A Halloween Contest