I Hate Shopping
I have just returned from an expedition to find new cooking pans. We just got a new stove (because the old one broke) and I thought it was about time to replace the had-them-since-college-probably-giving-me-cancer frying pans in our home. I didn’t find what I wanted. Not only that, the entire experience was baffling.
I don’t know if it’s just the fact that I usually stick to thrift stores, but I feel out of place in normal stores. Something about all that shiny, new merchandise, with duplicates all in a row doesn’t make sense to me. Nothing is unique. If I buy a sweater, about 30 people in my neighborhood have that same sweater. What’s the point?
So much of the stuff in stores is just useless crap. Yeah, it might be cute, but it just takes up space in your home. I saw a pretty gold Buddha statue that tempted me, then I thought, “What’s the point?” If someone comes to my house and says, “Ooh, that’s a beautiful Buddha; where did you get it?”, “Target” just seems like a lame answer. I much prefer to have things in my home that have a story to them.
And I have to ask, what is up with these onion holder things everywhere? Did some study come out that says onions can’t be in normal tupperware or plastic baggies? You would think after the hideous recession we all just lived through, single-use gimmicks like this would have died out, but apparently not. And now different types are coming out, like for avocados and tomatos. How are these necessary?
Not only are the items for sale in the stores pointless, the stores themselves are unpleasant. Why does every store feel the need to choke me to death with potpourri stink? What horrific smells are proliferating the store that you’re trying to cover up? Or are you hoping that my eyes will be watering so much I won’t realize what a shoddily made, probably-toxic item from China I’m buying?
Stuff is also way too expensive. I know I am probably the cheapest person you’ve ever come in contact with, but seriously. How many hours would I have to be at work to purchase a giant ceramic chicken that does nothing? Too long. It also seems like just going out and buying some random cute chtotchke is too easy. If I have something awesome in my house, I want to be able to say either “I crafted that myself”, or “I found it at a thrift store/garage sale”. Unless you’ve had to create the item, or dig through random junk for 20 minutes to find your treasure, you haven’t really earned it. But maybe I’m just nuts. Regardless, I headed over to Amazon to look for my pans, rather than trekking all over the city.
