Shopping Etiquette

So I'm taking care of some Christmas shopping last night and...ugh.

Sometimes Christmas shopping can be fun and exciting (an excuse to spend money and bask in consumerism - yay!) but sometimes it can suck big donkey you-know-what.

Here are some of the headaches that can come with shopping:

1. The Crappy Cashier - I'm in one of the checkout lines at a major store, and I'll be darned if I didn't have a 5 foot slug as a cashier. Holy crap was this lady slow. My line was as long as the others, but by the time I got to the front, the other lines had cahsed out double the customers. It was nuts. I just shook my head.

2. The Cellphone Walker- Look, folks, if you insist on using your cellphone every minute of every day (gosh you're popular!) at least be considerate of those around you. I swear, people walk with cellphones the way they drive with cellphones: they slow down, become unaware of their surroundings and are slow to react. Yesterday, a girl stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of a crowded sidewalk to fumble with something on her cellphone. Maddening.

3. The Inconsiderate Walker - You know these folks. They stroll three or four abreast in a crowded mall, holding up everyone behind them. They come to a dead stop or turn around without glancing over their shoulder or stepping aside, causing those behind them to have to stop suddenly as well, causing more traffic congestion. They stand side by side on the escalator (stand on the right, walk on the left folks). Walking in a mall is just like driving. The same rules apply. It ain't rocket science.

75% I swear...

There are other headaches, too: warm stores, bad service, lack of price tags, loud kids, lack of parking (sometimes I'm glad I got rid of my car).

But, all in all, I still like Christmas. The snow, the gift giving, egg nog...

Thank goodness it's only once a year, though.