I’m a Maxanista!

I’m good at a few things, average at most, and downright lousy at some. Shopping prowess would definitely be included in the ‘lousy’ category and I’ve been quite happy with that utter lack of skill for the last, oh, sixty-four years. Recently however I’ve been receiving one on one instruction on the finer points of spending money on things I absolutely don’t need and didn’t even know I wanted by a young lady in her late seventies. I’d challenge anyone to match the consummate skill of this lady when it comes to cruising through stores and snatching up bargains. Santa needs to hire this shopping phenomenon especially this year when most of his deliveries seem to be sitting idly in the middle of the ocean waiting for ports to clear up enough of a backlog to get them unloaded. 

Watch out TJ Maxx... here they come!

This lady happens to be my mother in law which means she is the mother of my dear wife who is no slouch when it comes to shopping herself. I guess she learned from the best. Sunday morning I got another Master class from the two of them (heaven help the retailer when this tandem duo steps through the door) as we attended the Grand Opening of the new TJ Maxx in Silverthorne. Perhaps you too were there - it did seem that not only all of Summit County was there but much of the front range as well. The parking lot was stuffed beyond capacity which in my book is the perfect reason to head in completely the opposite direction but if I contributed anything at all to this outing it was being lucky enough to score a parking space where we didn’t have to hike in from, like, Utah. 

We knew about the Grand Opening  after seeing signs announcing the coming event when we stopped into the  shopping center a couple of weeks ago to have lunch at one of our favorite mountain eateries - the Sunshine Cafe - and noticed a lot of work going on at what had been an empty store front after the Office Max shut down months ago. Hopefully the extra ‘X’ in the newest Maxx will bring better luck than the prior purveyor of office supplies had. And if the crowds on Sunday are any indication they’re off to a good start. Just getting into the store was no mean feat but we surfed the wave of humanity and made it through safely. Once inside there was no hesitation as my wife and mother in law were off like greased lightning. I had no hope of keeping up but gave it my best shot until I saw my nemesis out of the corner of my eye. 

Shopping Nirvana (at least in my book)

Like I said at the beginning of this blog I’m good at some things and one of the things I’m best at is spotting a cozy bench or chair in a store. And this one, miracle of miracles, was unoccupied! Heck, I thought, what better vantage point to watch two Masters  and thousands of their fellow aficionados do their thing than perched on a comfy nice new red bench that looked like it was placed there just for me. Well, tell you what, it wasn’t unoccupied for long and before you could say “I’m a  Maxanista” I had made myself at home as the hordes around me surged back and forth, to and fro, all around me. I was an island in a storm of shopping craziness and I could only watch with eyes wide open  at least until my eyelids grew heavy, my eyes glazed over, and I was caught, I admit it, napping. Now napping and shopping don’t go together in my mother in law’s vocabulary and I’m sure she would have given me the evil eye of all evil eyes if she had seen me but she was nowhere to be seen having disappeared into the shoe section ("Aren't those white boots topped with the white fur just adorable?"). 

Hard at work, bags only half full

Now I have to admit, the new TJ Maxx in Silverthorne really does have a comfy bench and I thoroughly enjoyed my shopping-inspired siesta but way too soon ("Really? We've been here for two hours?") I was being rudely awakened and told to get with the program. Kudos to my wife and mother in law though - they made good use of their time while I was busy catching ZZZ's. By the time I awoke they had filled their TJ Maxx shopping bags to the brim and were ready to get in line to check out. The lines for the registers stretched all the way to the back of the store at times, which kinda upset me. What with a 30 minute wait to give TJ Maxx all of our money was there any good reason to wake me up so soon? OK, I do tend to be a little grumpy right after nap time. So I made the same Executive Decision any four year old would make and stayed planted right where I was but eventually the line did actually move and it was time to bid our Grand Opening TJ Maxx Adventure adieu. But wait, right next store the Sierra (formerly Sierra Trading Post) store was also having their Grand Opening so guess where I was headed? Yup, to look for a new bench...