My best shopping experience–EVER! by Lynn Lovegreen

 

I’m not a big shopper. For most of my life, I didn’t have the money to make it a habit, and I have enough souvenirs and knick-knacks. My small stature makes buying clothes a hassle. It’s hard to find something that fits, and I lose patience after the second or third try-on. But I did have one shopping experience that was surprisingly easy.

 

A few winters ago, my husband and I were traveling to see family in California. Unfortunately, on one of our stops, someone stole the luggage out of the trunk of our rental car. (I’ll spare you the details of how that happened, but I do remind you to make sure your car is locked before you walk away from it.) All our clothes and toiletries were gone. The worst part was, my Bruce Springsteen concert t-shirt was in my suitcase. And of course it was a limited edition print. I’m still mourning that loss. But back to my story:

 

When we arrived at my sister-in-law’s house, we discovered our bad news. She volunteered to take us shopping. First, we hit a drug store for toothbrushes and all that stuff. No problem. Next, we went to a department store. I thought, here we go. They won’t have anything that fits. 

 

Surprise! They had a good petite section! I took a quick mental inventory of what I lost and went to it. I didn’t want to waste my vacation dithering about colors or styles, so went for classic stuff I knew I could wear. I grabbed a couple pairs of jeans, two t-shirts, a flannel shirt, and packs of socks and underwear. I’d need to hem or roll up the jeans, but that wasn’t a big deal. I even found a fleece vest for breezy days. I was finished in less than an hour. My sister-in-law was amazed at my quick decision making and speed in trying on clothes. I was happy to be done with it and go on with life. 

 

Maybe one day I’ll enjoy lingering over items in a boutique, artsy gift shop, or other fancy place. But I’d rather spend time in a bookstore. Now, that’s my kind of shopping!

 

Lynn Lovegreen has lived in Alaska for most of her life. After twenty years in the classroom, she retired to make more time for writing. She enjoys her friends and family, reading, and volunteering for her local library. Her young adult historical romance is set in Alaska, a great place for drama, romance, and independent characters. See her website at www.lynnlovegreen.com. 

What to do with this old jacket?

 by Diana McCollum

My husband and I like to spend time going through thrift shops. We have found some spectacular deals, and have bought some things that turn out to be duds.

My husband likes to barter with the people, and in thrift shops you can sometimes get the cost down by quite a bit, especially if the item has sat in the store for a long period of time.

Here in Paradise there's Snoop Sisters Thrift shop, Jeanie's Thrift shop, and five more Antique and thrift shops. So as you can imagine we can spend a whole morning or afternoon just browsing!

This post is about Jeanie's Thrift shop.  Last weekend we browsed through the shop. There is a table with a local farmers produce already bagged up and ready to be bought. That was our first item. A bag of mixed fresh fruit, nectarines, peaches, plums (two kinds).

After looking through the store I found the item I wanted. 

The Department 56 ornament box caught my eye. If you are a collector you know these items are very spendy brand new.

I excitedly opened the box.

There inside was the sweetest jeweled dashound Angel! The top opens up to a little jewel box with a silver colored heart. 

And it was marked $12.50. I couldn't believe the price for such a precious dashound.

When we got home I looked up on e-bay to see how collectable this little dashound was, and low and behold he is selling for $75.00!!

I won't be selling him as he will be a Christmas present for someone. 

So best shopping trip ever! I got quite the deal. And I know the person who is getting this dashound for Christmas will be thrilled!

Forgive me, for some reason I've messed up the settings and my typing starts in the middle of the page. 

The worst thrift shop buy was on the same day at a different thrift shop. My husband bartered with the lady for a reel and old fishing pole. She knocked $10 off the price and he bought both. When we got home he realized the fishing pole was unfixable. Therefore, he never got a deal at all. 

Now to address the title of my blog "What to do with this old jacket?".

 I never knew this till I read it in one of the newsletters I receive, there are thrift shops online. One called Thredup you can shop on that site, but you can also send a box of clothes, purses etc (no household goods) free of charge and they list the clothes and sell them. They keep a percentage and you are mailed a check when your items sell. It doesn't cost you a thing except time to sort through your clothes. If they can't sell the clothes you can pay to have them sent back to you or they will donate or recycle in some other way. 

What a great way to keep clothing out of the landfills. The other ones you can sell on yourself are e-bay and Etsy . Donate those old clothes or recycle or get a little cash for them, it's up to you. Please don't throw in the garage as our landfills don't need them!!

Have you ever sold anything online?

Shopping - blech!

I dislike shopping. The trudge from shop to shop, the barrage of choice, the agony of indecision—my personal hell. Except for food shopping, which I don’t mind at all. A lady’s gotta eat. And since I enjoy cooking and baking, I also enjoy purchasing what I need in order to cook and bake.

But there is a type of shopping that I love, though I hesitate to think of it as a purchase. More like an adoption. And that’s visiting the animal shelter to choose (or be chosen by) a new housemate. Hands down, without question, the funnest thing ever.

Believe it or not, even though I’ve lived with cats my whole life, it’s only relatively recently that I’ve had to go “shopping” for one. I don’t know where the kitties came from during my early childhood, and I have no actual memories of them, just black-&-white photos. When I was twelve, a handsome, dark, long-haired fellow turned up at the door and charmed the whole family. Gurgi lived by his own rules and let us know with bites to the ankle if we stepped out of line.

The first cat of my very own was one of a litter of farm kittens from next door to my mum’s summer house. I decided that Gurgi needed a playmate, so I brought home a tiny orange and white girl named Tivi.

Time passed, adventures were had, and the next kitties in the house were those that came with my husband. A chubby grey tabby named … wait for it … Grey Kitty, and a dainty calico without a name. I know! I didn’t need to live with her for long before I came up with the perfect name—Mrs. Danvers (of Rebecca fame). Fit her to a tee. We like to say she lived so long, 22 years, out of spite. At the same time, another handsome, dark fellow joined the family. He walked in from the street one day and never left. We named him after the street, Calvert.

Now we get to the shopping. We had been many years without an animal companion, and our boys needed the joy and responsibility of a cat. We all went to the shelter and met a few of the adult cats. The most affectionate by far was a chubby calico named Portia.

She’d had a bit of a hard life—a limp, missing a few teeth—my heart melted. She chose me as her favourite person, though she was friendly with everyone. But her hard life caught up with her and she left us far too soon.

About a year later, we returned to the shelter and were again taken with an adult cat, black except for a small white patch on her belly. (Touch the white patch. Go ahead - I dare you.)

After Mogget had lived with us for a month, it became clear she hadn’t, in fact, been spayed. Cat in heat—oh joy. After that was taken care of, the once cuddly cat wasn’t. She wanted to be close to her humans, but only so close, as determined by her.

Every cat needs a playmate, right? Back to the shelter we went and this time we chose a kitten, a feisty tuxedo boy.

Bruno was such a guy! And he never grew out of his teenager stage, much to Mogget’s annoyance. But they played together, by her rules, hunted voles and shrews together, and grew old together.

So you can keep your clothes shopping and furniture shopping and shoe shopping (ugh!). Invite me to go furry companion shopping and I’ll race you to the car.

Luanna Stewart has been creating adventures for her imaginary friends since childhood. She spends her days writing many flavours of romance. When not torturing her characters, she’s in her kitchen baking something delicious. She lives in Nova Scotia with her patient husband and two hens. 

Website ~ Bookbub ~ Instagram ~ Goodreads 

Shopping: A Necessity, Not a Pleasure

 Hi, I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, soul nourishing romantic women’s fiction with light paranormal elements. My stories show you what life could be like if you had a place like The Circle where you are unconditionally accepted, supported and loved. And where, with this support, you make choices to overcome the darkest nights and choose love and light.

This is an easy topic for me.

Best: when I easily and effortlessly find what I’m looking for and it doesn’t include clothes, furniture, etc. because I’m never sure what I’m looking for, or size, or color or …

Thankfully at my stage in life, there isn’t much to purchase other than what I use on a regular basis. Also, while not set in my ways, I have my preferences and know where the products I use are located in the stores I frequent.

Worst: All other shopping experiences. My latest “worst” shopping experience was finding and purchasing a flight to a conference in St. Louis. No direct flights available on the airline I preferred to use. And since I’ve not flown since 2018, other things have changed.

Before I more than muttered bad words, I called customer service. An extremely nice, competent woman held my virtual hand and led me through the process until I’d booked both flights.

What I will add about best and worst shopping experiences is so much of it depends on the businesses employees. Over the years I’ve been ignored, talked to like an imbecile, condescended to among other. When it’s something I need (like getting my car serviced due to a Recall), the luxury of walking out isn’t realistic.

Moonpower

When a 60 – 90 minute servicing of my car due to a recall had run on to almost 3 hours, I approached the service manager and calmly explained that I was fully capable of throwing a major tantrum thus creating a major scene and that I was more than willing to do that if that will get me the service I’ve been waiting for. The service manager told me my car would be ready in 20 minutes and it was ready in 15. No tantrum or scene needed.

I want to end on a “best experience” note and I’m struggling to come up with one that I consider “shopping”. I know in the early 1990’s I started using a service to lease/purchase my car. I’d call Brian up and say I’m looking to lease or buy whatever make/model/color/features I wanted. He’d call me back in a few days at most having found my car. I’d go to his office, sign paperwork and drive away.

Brian has retired and I’ve lost track of his company.

Moonpower, who is 15 years old, is going strong with just over 116K miles. She gets serviced every 3K miles. Since I’m semi-retired, I don’t put the miles on her like I used to. And, while I don’t plan on not driving any time soon, I’m closer to that reality than I used to be.

I don’t expect to get another car. For one thing I’d go Hybrid or EV and those vehicles cost more than I paid for my house in 1975! Well, Moonpower did also. That’s a story for another day.

You can find all of my books at your favorite e-book vendor. Be sure to ask your local library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource. If you want to read about shopping experiences in my books, check out Elizabeth’s shopping sprees in Ireland. Gabriella’s adventures in buying a wedding gown might also entertain you.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshley.net

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB! 

© 2023 Judith Ashley