Early Saturday morning I yawned, laid down the newspaper and was considered dressing to go to a garage sale when the phone rang. A cheery voice asked, “Would you like to go shopping with us at the mall? I’m driving.”
After Christmas sales? All right! I grabbed some clothes, a wad of money and my checkbook. I was ready and waiting when she arrived. As we drove to our friend’s house to pick her up, she mentioned that her teenager wanted clothes from a couple name brand companies. She sighed, “I just can’t afford them.”
We picked up a third woman who was ready to shop till we dropped – or ran out of money.
As we started out, I hesitantly asked, “could we stop by a garage sale? It’s just right around the corner.” They agreed to go. Embarrassed at asking anyone prepared to spend a day at the mall to start with a garage sale, I rapidly scanned the tables of miscellaneous boxes of reading material and racks of clothes. After quickly inspecting a couple blouses from the step-ladder clothes rack, I decided to buy them.
I looked around the garage. My go-to-the-mall-and-shop friends were sorting through garments on the other side of the makeshift clothes rack. I draped the blouses over my left arm and hastily went over to check out the men’s clothes. I kept checking to see if my fellow shoppers were bored and ready to head to the mall yet. I piled a couple pairs of name brand slacks and shirts on my arm before I decided I had better quit – while I still had money to spend at the mall.
To other two were still looking, discussing and comparing. I went through the men’s clothes one by one and found several items with the brand names my friend’s sons wanted. I called her and held them up, “would these fit your son?”
She studied the shirt closely, “This might. Don’t you want it?”
“Wrong size.”
She added it to her pile of clothes: a stack three or four times higher than mine.
“And here’s a shirt from that other company you mention.” I said looking at the tag. “Not worn at all.” She shook her head in disbelief, “Quit looking, I’ll never get to town at this rate.”
I quit looking – but she didn’t. I stacked my finds on a table and looked over the tables of assorted goods while the other two found clothes for themselves, their husbands or sons.
An hour after we came, we left the garage sale. At $15 I paid the least. The other two, arms loaded with name brand clothes, in excellent condition. I filled the trunk of the car and severely dented their shopping budgets.
Relishing our garage sale purchases, we headed for the new stuff at the mall. “Before we hit the mall, let’s stop at the wholesale store,” someone suggested. Then we checked out a household specialty shop, visited the book store and ate a long, late, leisurely lunch. By the time we finished lunch, the day, our enthusiasm and our supply of cash were severely dwindled. We voted to skip the mall and head for home.
We did shop till we dropped, but we never got to the mall.