Seasonal Shopping

I fully admit that I kind of like shopping this time of year. I enjoy the heightened sense of adventure and joy during the month of December. I especially enjoy it all when I'm mostly done with my shopping and can kind of wander through all the chaos and not get anxious about anything I've missed.

The problem comes from needing to go shopping for non-Holiday things during this time of year.

When I lived in Maryland, I learned that as soon as a winter storm was coming there would be a run on milk, bread, and toilet paper in the stores. The problem with this kind of thing is that basically everyone would find out about the coming storm at the same time, so everyone would go to the store at the same time. Because, apparently, everyone needed an extra 18 rolls of toilet paper to survive the one snow day that might be coming.

Although there was always a little camaraderie about being in the store with everyone else if you were buying milk, bread, and toilet paper, it was always a pain in the tuchus if you were in the store because... well... you needed to buy groceries. I have no idea how many times I would hear there was a storm coming while watching the news and pouring the last glass of milk out of my jug. Which, of course, meant that I was in the store for a necessity at the same time as everyone else buying milk out of paranoia.

Which brings me back to today's shopping. I needed to go to Target for the things I usually go to Target for. Basics. House stuff. Toiletries. Yes, even milk. Okay, I'll admit that I also went into the Christmas aisles for extra wrapping paper and tape. And, for that, I was prepared for the chaos.

There was no chaos. The calmest part of the store was the Christmas area. I'm not sure whether people shopped early or they're going to be shopping late. All I know for sure is that even though there were no carts available when I got there, there were also almost no lines at checkout.

And, for the record, I'm really glad that Minnesotans don't raid the stores every time a snowstorm threatens, because I would have really hated not being able to buy milk.