For some women, shopping is a sport comprised of rules and etiquette that is expected of all participants.
These rules are simple and ensure that everyone’s shopping experience will be enjoyable.
When shopping at a major clearance sale event one must exhibit patience with fellow shoppers. There is no need to push or grab.
Respecting your fellow shoppers’ space is key. Some people do not enjoy when people invade their personal space.
Do not snatch an item from anyone. This kind of unsportsmanlike conduct is reserved for Mardi Gras parades where the prize is only a ten-cent pair of beads.
That way neither party has much to lose.
The last and final rule of shopping is that the retail establishment must have full constitution at all times.
I am an ardent fan of shopping. I know a good sale when I see one and I know when to say when. For me shopping is simply a hobby, not a full-time job.
But, after witnessing what I did on Saturday morning I am ashamed to enjoy shopping as much as I do.
Saturday morning was the Imelda’s Fine Shoes tent sale. For those of you who are not familiar with Imelda’s, let me clue you in.
Imelda’s is a shoe store on Jefferson Highway that sells designer shoes at discount prices. It is a shoe lover’s Mecca.
The tent sale is an extraordinary event because selected shoes go on sale for $9.99.
The sale started at 10:00 a.m. I arrived promptly (thinking I was playing it smart), but apparently some people had arrived early. The parking lot was a sea of women.
Women hungry for battle. They were armed only with their checkbooks and their credit cards.
No amount of warning could have prepared me for the carnage that lay ahead.
I have never seen grown women act this way. Housewives and soccer moms were clawing and fighting their way through piles of shoes.
The rules were thrown out. It was no holds barred. It was survival of the fittest. These women were playing to win.
There was a particular group of women, rumored to have been there since 9:00 a.m., that was absolutely, totally and utterly rude.
The manager of the store had to take away their garbage bags. Yes, that’s right — I said garbage bags. These women would stuff as many shoes as they could into garbage bags.
The manager, after removing the bags, re-emerged from the store carrying a new box full of shoes. These same women rushed forward knocking people over to get to the box. They had their hands in the box already digging. The poor man couldn’t even move forward.
Apparently, this was the last straw. The manager called the police to escort them away. Everyone was glad to see them go.
It struck me when I arrived back home that this behavior was more than just shameful. It was wrong. Grown women should not have to be escorted away from a shoe sale for misbehaving.
Is the desire for material possessions too great? Is it our capitalist subconscious that makes us want to spend money and acquire possessions?
It is this kind of behavior that sometimes makes me ashamed to be an American. I don’t deny that I don’t love the freedom and the money to go shopping and buy whatever I want. That is the American dream, right?
I have a hard time when I think about the reasons that other countries hate the United States. It is this kind of behavior that makes other nations abhor us. We have all this freedom and yet we take advantage of it.
Somalia doesn’t have enough resources or money to feed its people and in the United States we have people fighting over shoes.
Saturday was a very eye-opening experience. One I never hope to witness again.