Hey, this isn't like going to the mall

My granddaughter, Cori, is getting married, so, I've been shopping. In fact, I spent all of Saturday afternoon in a frustrating shopping mode. First I asked for the bridal registry list from Bed, Bath and Beyond. They couldn't find it. What go do? Not waste a trip of course. I checked out lots of things, including a lot of sheets on sale, but all seemed to be king size, and I know she needs queen. Prices were pretty amazing even on sale and I was glad she doesn't have a king size bed. Then I checked out sheets, towels and other stuff at T.J. Maxx, which in NYC if upstairs from BB&B - not a mall per se, but three stores [the third if Flenes Basement] in a big old building one store per floor. I saw some possibilities but knew I needed to consult her mother. Because I was flying blind without that registry list.

Then I went up to Macy's -- the BIG MAMA of all Macy's stores -- because I'd seen an ad for a weekend sale on cookware. Yes, there it was, a nice set at a nice price. BUT boxed up, as all but the display set was, I found it would be possible for me to carry it from the stack to the cashier but was so heavy I'd have a struggle to get it down and up and up and up the subway steps between there and my apartment. I would need a wheelie thingie -- this is the CITY, not a mall. I had no waiting car in a nearby lot. If I should go back with my wheelie, and get it, I'd then face, the same processes to go to the bus station the weekend [when there's a shower]. Too much to handle. So I went upstairs to check out white sales. Oh, my! More king size sets -- doesn't anybody sleep in a smallish bed these days? And the feather duvets were astronomial, not to mention bulky [though not requiring Rambo-ish muscles].

What go do? Call her mother, Rachel, for advice. Had a nice talk with Rachel while she walked the dog around a pond [I've done that walk often with her and love it -- the like does not exist here]. I explained my frustrating day. "There's a Macy's in our mall," she said. I thought there was only a Filene's and Sears. Hurray! "See if they have the sale there too," I suggested. "Sure, as soon as we get on around the pond." Half an hour later, "I'm standing here looking at a cookware set. Is this what you meant?" -- For the past couple years I've listened to people on their cell phones in stores explaining dresses or computers or whatever to someone back home and thought, why don't they just make a decision and buy the thing or not? Well, now I understood. Yes, that was the cookware set. And yes, she should buy it for me -- because it's actually 60% off -- a better bargain than at most off price stores. Thus the buying power of big chains and the wonder of the "loss leader" advertising.

So, being at a mall, having a car and availablity of a push cart to take the big, heavy box to th parking area, the purchase was accomplished in minutes. I can get on a bus with nothing more difficult than my smallest wheelie suitcase and a checkbook in my pocketbook. Oh ... if only various other problems could be solved so efficiently!