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. 

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

Holiday Shopping Tips from a Former Shopgirl

By Cassandra O'Leary

It's Thanksgiving in the US, and while we don't celebrate it here in Australia, I'm going holiday-themed with a festive shopping related post. For those who don't already know, one of my former careers was as a retail shopgirl. I worked for around five years at one of Australia's largest department stores, staffing the perfume and makeup counters. I also worked casual hours as a perfume promotions chick at a couple of other stores from time to time. Including Kmart. In a Russian cossack style marching uniform. Sigh. 

In those many years of standing in high heels, taking negative attitudes from customers (the customer is NOT always right, sorry!) and ringing up approximately eleventy billion lipsticks and perfume gift sets, I learned a thing or two about shopping during the holiday season. I know it's Black Friday this week online too, and I will be doing my fair share of product stalking...

Without further ado, here are my totally honest, take no prisoners, holiday shopping tips!

Hot holiday shopping tips

1. Buy online. 

I'm serious...the bricks and mortar retailers probably don't want me to say so but you can get a lot of stuff home delivered these days and even save money on retail prices. I want to buy a particular Lego set for a certain little boy and I'll be buggered if I will drive around to ten different toy shops to find it. Nope, eBay is my friend. On the extra plus side, when you get the deliveries it feels like you're getting heaps of presents, even if they are all for other people. No, scratch that, buy yourself something nice and completely unnecessary too! (Hello, Sephora.com)  I'll be doing a combination of online and in store, because sometimes you have to touch and see an item in person.

2. Get there early!

I mean early bird, catching the worm, as soon as the stores open. Here in Australia some of the stores start opening at 8am in November, so it's best to get a coffee, snag your car parking space and march up to the store before the doors even open. Note: the shop girls will still be sleepy but not too snarky at this time of day, so you're more likely to get actual good service. Just say please, thank you and mind your p's and q's (i.e. don't curse at the floor staff). 

3. Wear your flat shoes.

The shopping centre (US translation - indoor mall) I used to work at was the size of a small university campus or gated community. I could easily walk 5km a day, just to get from one end of the place to the other, when both working and shopping. You don't want your ankles to swell, especially if there's a shoe sale happening. Try on the high heels, don't walk in them all day! Also, you don't want to get your heel snagged in the escalators.

4. Bring brochures.

Do you get a pile of junk mail before the big retail sales? Circle those deals and bring them with you to the department stores. Most stores will price match a deal in a competitor's brochure/catalogue, even if they don't want to. These days you can even use a price comparison search on your phone and show the (poor, long-suffering) shopgirl. 

5. Eat protein for long-haul shopping power.

You think I'm joking, but holiday shopping can be a physical and mental workout. Survival of the fittest. Grab a ham sandwich or a soy latte and get going again, but get that nutrition into you. 

Insider tip: head to the food hall or market zone of an indoor mall to sample all the free cheese and chocolate. They bring out all the good samples at Christmas time!

6. Call family.

When you get sucked into the vortex of shopping for hours on end without hope of ever checking off every person on your list, or you're giving your plastic such a workout you're close to tears, or just wandering aimlessly looking for a store map, it's okay to phone a friend. Call your family, ask for directions or a tip on a particularly hard to buy for relative. Calling my Mum once saved me hours of shopping time for my Dad, when she sagely suggested: "Buy wine." Done! 

In case of disaster...

Now, if all else fails, I suggest going home, putting Love Actually on Netflix and eating a giant seasonal Toblerone while drinking coffee or your preferred alcoholic beverage, and trying again another day. Or make a donation to charity and tell everyone you are buying them a goat in some far-off land. That'll show 'em!

Good luck, shoppers! And Happy Thanksgiving. 

P.S. My holiday romcom, HEART NOTE, set in an Australian department store around the perfume counter at Christmas, is now on sale for only 99 cents! You should totally buy it for yourself and all your friends...available from Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble and Google Play Books. 

Buy now - books2read.com/HeartNote 

About Cassandra O'Leary

Cassandra O'Leary is a romance and women's fiction author, communications specialist, avid reader, film and TV fangirl and admirer of pretty, shiny things. 

Cassandra won the global We Heart New Talent contest run by Avon Books/HarperCollins UK in 2015. Her debut novel, Girl on a Plane, was then published in July 2016. Cassandra was also a 2015 finalist in the Lone Star writing contest, Northwest Houston Romance Writers of America, and a 2014 finalist in the First Kiss contest, Romance Writers of Australia. In 2017, Heart Note: A Christmas Romcom Novella, became a top 50 bestselling holiday romance and humor fiction title on Amazon. 

Cassandra is also a mother of two gorgeous, high-energy mini ninjas and wife to a spunky superhero. Living in Melbourne, Australia, she's also travelled the world. If you want to send her to Italy or Spain on any food or wine tasting 'research' trips, that would be splendiferous. She's currently working on several books, or pretends to while buying shoes on the internet. 

Read more at: cassandraolearyauthor.com