While we were in northern Ohio, I found myself in - what was to me - yuppie shopping hell.
I was designated taxi for a trip to the dentist which happened to be next to a big shopping area, not a mall really, but a bunch of free-standing big-box stores next to a strip mall. So there I was, in a huge parking lot, surrounded by a huge Target, a huge Marshall's, a three-story Kohl's and Lowe's (which by definition is huge).
I was in fact looking for two kitchen items: a two-cup Pyrex measuring cup and an inexpensive knife sharpener. (I'd already been to two stores looking for these same two items.) Shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong!
The huge Target had two knife sharpeners, one an electric whiz-bang for $52 and another for $22. A new set of knives was less expensive! Oh - and no two-cup measuring cups. One-cup and three-cup, yes, but no two-cup. Marshall's had the measuring cup but no knife sharpeners. Kohl's and Lowe's didn't have either.
What struck me - beyond the fact that in all that stuff I couldn't find two, simple, basic items - was just how much STUFF there was. Racks and piles and shelves and on and on of...stuff. It was overwhelming.
I admit I don't like shopping in the first place. Shopping is something I do out of necessity. It is not a calming recreational activity. I couldn't wait to get out of whichever store I was in. Too intense. Overwhelming. Couldn't breathe. And all that stuff. More of it in more colors and more sizes and more brands doesn't make it better. It just makes it more. Consumerism run rampant.
That - the consumerism - more than anything is why I don't want to move back to the States.
I can only imagine what the average Puerto Rican shopper would think in a place like I saw. Shopping here is a national past time. I often think it's a good thing we're in a recession. I can't imagine how people would be, how crowded stores would be if there was actual money. Maybe our little Walmart plaza would look like that place in suburban Cleveland. God, I hope not.
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