Holiday Shopping 2023

644 Words

It was the Fourth Quarter of the 2023 corporate earnings season, better known as Christmas time, when garish inflatable ornaments appeared on the front lawns of everyday Americans, imported from China, purchased from the giant box stores, and paid for by already overextend credit cards. Deflated and sad during the day, they sprang up in the evening, noisy electric air blowers breathing life into their plastic bodies. Some had affiliation with Christmas such as Santa Claus, Rudolph the reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman. Others were cartoon or comic book characters such as yellow Minions, blue Smurfs, Sponge Bobs, Batman, and new for this year a neon green crocodile holding the Israeli flag in its tiny crocodile hands.

It was out into this environment on a Saturday afternoon that Bob’s wife Sandy had sent him shopping. It was only two weeks until Christmas Day and there were no presents under the artificial extra-slim Christmas tree with variable lights harvested this year for eighty-nine dollars from Home Depot. Six stockings hung from an artificial fireplace, full in previous years but now flat and empty, one for each of their two grown daughters, one for their son-in-law, one each for Bob and Sandy, and one for their Terrier Tito. The black box on the wall was telling them it was time to shop, shop, shop or else suffer the humiliation and shame of not spending money they didn’t have and would have to borrow at a twenty-six percent interest rate.

Bob hoped to put a few presents under the tree, put some girth on the stockings, and reserve a roast of some kind for Christmas dinner at the local grocery store before the kids arrived to stay at their house. Bob’s first stop was the Independence shopping mall named for no reason he was aware of other than it was located on Independence Boulevard in Wilmington, NC. Perhaps the boulevard was where the colonial army had fought the British for independence, he thought with sudden pride.

The Independence mall, like many malls in working-class neighborhoods in America, was a sad reminder of the vibrant and exciting economy that used to be. Gone were the boutique stores with images of beautiful women and handsome men wearing quality clothing, jewelry, watches, and handbags made with real materials such as cotton, leather, and diamonds. People used to look upon these images and think maybe I could look like that too. Or maybe it was never like that, maybe everyone thought it was sexist, or unfair, or worse. Now everything was made in China of plastic to be thrown away and end up in the ocean or “donated” to huge garbage dumps in South America.

Bob walked down the near empty halls of the mall, only every fourth store was filled with a retail business of some kind. Sometimes it wasn’t a retail business at all but a model train display, or a beauty college. There were the faux shoe stores, five-dollar fast fashion places, and kiosks selling over-sized bunny slippers. He didn’t know what to get the kids. Sandy had asked the kids and they said they only wanted money. Money to pay off their student loans, car repairs, and credit cards. Or Amazon gift cards.

Bob went to the Food Lion hoping to find a roast. He knew he would have better luck finding a good roast at Harris Teeter or Publix but who could afford those prices? If he could find no gifts then at least a roast on Christmas eve would do. He remembered his late Mother-in-Law would serve a prime rib every year and he hoped to follow that tradition. He found a nice prime rib, but it was $235 and out of reach. So he settled on a ham for dinner, and some mandarin oranges, packs of chewing gum, and walnuts to fill out the stockings.