Ikea makes it hard to just pop in to buy something quickly. They've arranged it so you naturally wander through a maze of home furnishings. Ypu usually feel like a mouse on a quest for cheese. But last week, we went through a little backwards.
First, we went to the cash registers, found a gap in the lines and went in through the exit. Then we went directly to scratch and dent. Then we walked through the marketplace. We bought blue bags, chocolate bars, batteries, and hand towels. We spent less than $20.
I guess that's why they want us to go through the whole store!
We popped into Wal-Mart in the wee hours of the morning. It was around 2:30 a.m. and the back-to-school crowds had thinned out. Amazingly, we did see one family with a kid in the store. They are sure going to have fun getting him on the bus this week.
We didn't see much that we needed or wanted. But, the store was a fairly safe place for a late night walk. As we strolled through the aisles, we didn't see much that we needed or wanted. It was a strange feeling. We did a quick walk around the store and wandered back out to the car.
Like many consumers now, we just don't have much extra money to spend on new stuff. Wal-Mart reminds us that we are in the cheapest store with the cheapest things. We felt poor. We found it upsetting that the only safe place to walk in the area late at night was Wal-Mart. My wife and I shook our heads on the way out.
"I'd like to get rid of the Wal-Mart card," she said.
"Yeah," I said. "Let's kill it."
