This weekend my neighborhood has its annual yard sale. Streams of people will come by to pick
over the offerings. One of my
neighbors sells hot dogs and hamburgers.
She gives any profits to charity.
A local church uses its basement as a showcase for donated items. Any profit is destined for the church’s budget.
For some people
I suppose it is like a treasure hunt.
Used toys outgrown by the children who originally owned them would be
fun for other children who have now reached the age when the toys would be appropriate. Ditto for children’s
clothing and furniture.
And I am cheap.
I get the idea of saving money.
When I need a specific article of clothing, I often
check out thrift
shops.
When I was a therapist I had clients with limited income who
used their specialized knowledge to scour yard sale for unrecognized antiques
and undervalued items. They talked
about saving pieces of history that otherwise would be thrown away.
I also have the collecting gene. I accumulate books in particular now. I used to collect coins. I enjoy meeting others who share my
interests. I have to admit, though, that I don’t really understand
recreational shopping. Unless
there is a specific goal, I do not find shopping appealing or restful. Part of it may be I’m at the stage in
my life where I’m trying to downsize possessions. On the other hand, I don’t ever remember enjoying
shopping.
My father talked about a neighbor who haunted yard sales and
repeatedly found bargains. She had
a
house full of valuable finds. He
said he used to tell her that, with everything she found, someday her
descendants would hold a gigantic yard sale of her stuff.
Can you educate me?
What about shopping is recreational for you?
I am a collector by genetic disposition. I am not a shopper so can’t educate you on that issue, Warren, other than to say having only one X chromosome with an unmatching shorter Y chromosome seems to explain some of the missing shopping drive.
ReplyDelete~ Jim
I'm not a recreational shopper. I think people who do have nothing better to do. Okay--maybe that remark is condescending, but I'm so busy, shopping seems a chore. A friend of mine approaches shopping like a game. She usually finds the best bargains--and yet since she is a size zero--she has little competition! I don't do yard sales. I know of mystery series based on those collectors who then resell them. Usually, you get what you pay for, so I stay away.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, strangely enough, Jim, neither Elaine nor I are shoppers. The only shopping I like is in office supply stores and bookstores. Clothes, furniture, tchotchkes, electronics, appliances, etc., I hate to bother with. If I have to buy something, let me get in the store, find what I want right away, and get out.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, strangely enough, Jim, neither Elaine nor I are shoppers. The only shopping I like is in office supply stores and bookstores. Clothes, furniture, tchotchkes, electronics, appliances, etc., I hate to bother with. If I have to buy something, let me get in the store, find what I want right away, and get out.
ReplyDeleteI love garage sales, auctions and thrift shops! It's fun looking at all the stuff (what was someone thinking when they bought that? And what would they have used it for?) I put it in the same category as listening to strangers' conversations on the bus or speculating about what goes on inside that spooky Victorian house with the llamas grazing in the front yard and the carnival ride parked in front of the barn.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I don't go to them much, although I do check the thrift shops when they have bag sales. One thing I buy are bags and bags of books, usually for $5 a bag, which I donate to the library at the prison where I used to work. It has virtually no budget for non-legal reference books.
I don't go more often because I don't have the time, and because I know I can get caught up in the moment and buy things I don't need. Then I become the person who can't figure out what I was thinking and what I will do with that.
Being a military wife cured me of any desire for recreational shopping. Seeing the luxurious amount of space left when everything is packed up and moved out cured me of wanting too much more "stuff." However, I am the daughter of two antique dealers/history buffs, so I do enjoy a good yard sale or flea market. The appeal for me is imagining the history of different pieces, the stories they tell, and also my appreciation for the craftsmanship and artistry of things made before mass production.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day when I was making and selling crafts to work my way through college, I went to garage sales and flea markets to pick up things I could use. Then when I started teaching third grade, I'd go to garage sales to get things for my classroom including small toys for my prize can. Now I almost never go unless I'm going someplace with my sisters and they stop at one.
ReplyDeleteI don't like shopping unless it's at a book store or a garden center. I hate being with my daughter, sister or sister-in-law when after lunch they want to do a little shopping. What I want to know is why stores don't have chairs for those of us who want someplace to wait and read while who they're with shop.
I just thought of something else. I had four garage sales after I retired from teaching to sell the stuff from my classroom. Some items that sold amazed me - bones from when I did archeology digs in big containers of sand I brought in, large paper wasp nests, and a large stuffed fish with a scarf tied around its neck to keep the stuffing from falling out. One of these days I should have another garage sale to get rid of so much stuff that still remains. But then having a garage sale takes a lot of work, so maybe not.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a shopper although I enjoy people watching when I go to the mall. However, some of my friends are intense clothing/shoe shoppers and can spend the better part of a day engaged in retail therapy. Although, maybe it's not purely recreational for them because they have high-level corporate jobs or own their own companies and need to look sharp.
ReplyDeleteMy dad enjoyed going to yard sales and thrift stores to look for antiques in need of repair. He'd spend hours in the garage refurbishing furniture and polishing silver.