Our beleaguered, battered little country is mired in economic hell. Everybody’s jobless, hopeless and moments away from homeless.
Right? Isn’t that what we’re being told constantly?
OK, got it. We are, en masse, penniless. Which makes my experience yesterday all the more baffling. Y’see, my husband had the most awesome epiphany ever: our lives would not be complete without Rock Band for Wii. Mr. WonderAli gave the game to WonderAli for Christmas and one visit got us hooked on rockin’ out with our … umm, fake instruments out. So, off we went to Circuit City to get us one. The place was packed, not only with people but with Rock Band for every flipping console except Wii. The official word: the Wii version had sold out. On to store #2: Best Buy. Same deal, but the place was even more packed with customers and the checkout line (not customer service, just straight up purchasing) wrapped halfway around the store! Actually, that line prompted my husband to blurt the title of this post aloud as we walked and walked and the line refused to end. The man cracks me up! 
On to Wal-Mart … third verse same as the first: packed with shoppers, no Wii versions, checkout lines up the wazoo! Finally, we found what we were looking for at the Happiest Place on Earth: TARGET! Rock Band Special Edition, complete with badass-looking chrome plated drum pedal! We walked away happy, but not before navigating our way through throngs of shoppers just dying to lay their money down.
There are a few roads I’d love to take this down, but I’ll stick to one:
Hundreds and hundreds of active shoppers crossed our path in one afternoon, which kind of baffled us a bit. Retailers are desperate! The whole industry is going down in flames! Nobody’s buying! Then what were all these people doing? If we could line up and drop what looked like hundreds of dollars each into the collective retail coffers and stores still can’t make ends meet, maybe it’s time for some revision of their business practices.
Really, is it just me? I’m not exactly a retail expert (on the sales end, anyway … heh), but haven’t most stores set themselves up for this money hemmoraging thing? Thoughts?
New Poll (because I know how you love them):
Target is indeed the happiest place on earth.
Ain’t it, though? My Happiest Place on Earth designation bounced from store to store for years before settling on Target. Now, it’s been happily settled for four years! *sigh*