Christmas shopping and malls

Malkavian

So I got woken up around ten in the morning today, with my father telling me he's really not feeling well and could I be a good son and drive my sister to the mall so she could do Christmas shopping. Now ever since yesterday afternoon I've been running a fever but I know if I say no my father's going to do it, and his health is much worse.

So here's why I hate Christmas shopping:

1) Traffic. Christ the traffic is terrible. I'm not an F-1 driver or anything but living where I do it's something of a necessity to know one's way around a tough road, but there are some things that are difficult to account for, like people cutting in front of you without using turn signals, going slowly then speeding up when they see you're trying to pass them (seriously, bastard was doing forty on the highway and when he saw I was trying to pass him he gunned up to 90) and just general people being a dick.

2)Malls don't have Borders anymore. I used to not mind driving my sister to malls because that meant I could chill at Borders for an hour and read those Doctor Who novels and comics that looked vaguely interesting that I wasn't willing to pay for. Usually I would end up buying a book or comic or manga or something anyways because I have poor impulse control. It was also cool because Borders tended to cater to my tastes more than Barnes & Noble does. Without them I have to wander around the mall or dick around in the car with my 3DS for a few hours. Also, I forgot my 3DS.

Come back , Borders! ;_; I'll never shop at B&N again! We don't have what you and I had!

3) Other shoppers. Yeah, I know, but jesus all the people pushing and shoving and the noise noise NOISE! When I put my earphones, blast the music all the way up, and still can't hear what Rob Halford's saying that's an issue. 

I expect to be deaf by the time I'm thirty.

4)Sellers. If your brain is located in your skull and not your rectum you would probably ask me why I didn't decide to get some Christmas shopping done. I did. The thing is that all the sellers were so busy pushing these really expensive machines with features my father wouldn't use anyways. They just won't take no for an answer.

5) I fucking hate Bing Crosby.

Icalasari

*Reads part on Traffic*

Do you live in the Calgary area? ?

RedEyedAbyss

I believe it would be better if people made their own gifts, but I guess that would also require getting the materials. But chances are you can make some good stuff out of cheap things you already have around the house such as paper.

DonZabu

>5) I fucking hate Bing Crosby.

I read that as "Bill Cosby".

Midgetsnowman

I love the mall on shopping rushes. I dunno why. theres just something zen about sitting down and watching thousands of people you'll never see or meet again and realizing just how big the world is.

LouieW

I hear that ordering a bunch of stuff online (especially when there are free shipping deals) is the way to go when it comes to shopping. Seems like it becomes even easier when people have amazon wishlists or something like them. I guess you do not always have that option though.

Malkavian

Oh man, my sister asked me to send her my amazon wishlist. Thanks for reminding me, Louie!

That said, people give me crap for buying online, but where I live the only alternative is malls and while I do want to support brick-and-mortar places, I have somewhat less investment in them than small places.

Waltzy

Sooo true on Borders. Hell I did all my shopping there. DX

Forzare

I miss Borders. 

Even though Barnes and Noble is closer than the nearest Borders ever was, and I can buy like every book ever on my Kindle.

Malkavian

I need to get a kindle. I'll save so much money on the public domain stuff alone.

Forzare

I love my Kindle to death.

They're pretty (relatively) cheap these days too, if I remember correctly.

glennmagusharvey

I miss Borders too.

Crimson

I friggin loved Borders, you could easily find nerds to talk to just by browsing the manga section. And the one near my home had these really comfy chairs and a decent cafe attached to it.

All Nines

I liked Borders, though not for the people browsing the manga section. I wish it was still around, sort of, because they had a good selection, but at the same time I'm more inclined to shop somewhere else now instead because they sell books really cheap.

glennmagusharvey

I always go to bookstores with my parents so it's awkward for me to just hang around the manga section.

And it just feels awkward, period, to hang around the manga section looking for people to chat with.

That said, I have sometimes just stood there and read stuff, so it's not like I don't have reason to stand there.

Nice thing about our local B&N (the local Borders is now closed, of course ... ) is that the TTRPG shelf faces the manga shelf, so all that stuff is conveniently concentrated together.  The board games, though, are in another part of the store.

Forzare

I feel awkward in the manga section anywhere.  I always feel so self conscious.  And I still haven't ever actually bought a manga.

I like Barnes and Noble.  There's one about twenty minutes away from my house.  But the Borders was in the mall, so I could just drive over there if I felt like it and hit a bunch of my favorite stores all at once.  Now there's less of a reason for me to do that.

glennmagusharvey

The problem with me going to the mall is that I don't have disposable income.

Well, I can claim myself to have some, but it feels really unethical when my mom is coupon-clipping all over the place and I'm unemployed.

So I make purchases like once every few months or year, to the tune of maybe $10~$20 total discretionary spending, including online purchases, excluding those requested by my parents.

IanExMachina

Do you guys have Waterstones at all?

They were better than Borders.

captainbrass

^ I don't think Waterstones ever expanded to the US. They are basically about the only national chain of book shops left in the UK.

I've bought most of my books there for years.

Forzare

^^ Never heard of it, so probably not.

glennmagusharvey

I don't like how there's like only one chain of bookstores, and there are no other bookstores around here.  Okay, there's one secondhand bookstore nearby but that's about it.  So the closest bookstore to where I live is Barnes & Nobles, and that's it for like these several towns.