Saturday, November 26, 2005
Yesterday I Went To The Zoo And Didn't Pay To Get In!
The zoo I went to was one of those timed advertising sales. You know, where they put a certain item on sale for a ridiculous low price at a certain hour. Doing a little research I was told to be there by 5:30 for a 6 pm sale. I had never been to one of these before, so I followed the free advice.
On arrival there were about 10 or so people present. The item that I wanted was wrapped in nifty Christmas wrapping paper. My wife and I got a position next to the pallet of goods. In minutes there were fifty people there, and shortly after that who know how many.
Suddenly people became fearful of their life or injury. Two ladies who were there before us said that there were four more pallets of this item out back. She told everyone not to panic because she did not want anything to fall on her, or get injured. Two employees show up to guard the wrap as people are tearing peek holes. They were very nervous of getting injured also, conversing with each other about past experiences in such sales. They confirmed there were more out back, about 350 of the item at least.
5:50 rolls around and now all of us up front realize there is no way out. It is a mass of greedy people. Some want four of the item (the limit) and some only want one. The employees mention the company time is five minutes behind the actual time. This should be interesting they say. They advise those of us waiting that an announcement will be made when the sale is to begin.
6:58 – the crowd is pushing forward, it is hard to breathe and all the body heat makes it hot. 6:02 arrives, still no announcement. Someone in back yells out; “It’s six o’clock!”
That did it. No employee is going to stop anyone, it is like a war zone. Paper is flying, people are surging ahead. I grab one of the items and pass it to my wife I(for my son). I take another and try to head out of the crowd. My wife is a short person, and another young lady tries to grab the item out of her hands violently. She may be short, but a toughy – she hangs on to it and gets away. I am trying to follow her direction. The same lady, with a friend as assistant, tries to grab the box that I have. I had to hang on to it hard enough that the box actually crushed. A little elbow work and a standing shopping cart provide distraction to the nice ladies.
As we made it away from the masses, a bunch of things go crashing to the floor from one of the aisles. It is a wonder the building can stand it. We got what we went for, with the added entertainment of seeing animals I had only heard about before – including one that was attracted to wallets. (Not successful I might add.)
We didn’t have to pay to get in, just to get out – we got what we wanted – with free entertainment!
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
On arrival there were about 10 or so people present. The item that I wanted was wrapped in nifty Christmas wrapping paper. My wife and I got a position next to the pallet of goods. In minutes there were fifty people there, and shortly after that who know how many.
Suddenly people became fearful of their life or injury. Two ladies who were there before us said that there were four more pallets of this item out back. She told everyone not to panic because she did not want anything to fall on her, or get injured. Two employees show up to guard the wrap as people are tearing peek holes. They were very nervous of getting injured also, conversing with each other about past experiences in such sales. They confirmed there were more out back, about 350 of the item at least.
5:50 rolls around and now all of us up front realize there is no way out. It is a mass of greedy people. Some want four of the item (the limit) and some only want one. The employees mention the company time is five minutes behind the actual time. This should be interesting they say. They advise those of us waiting that an announcement will be made when the sale is to begin.
6:58 – the crowd is pushing forward, it is hard to breathe and all the body heat makes it hot. 6:02 arrives, still no announcement. Someone in back yells out; “It’s six o’clock!”
That did it. No employee is going to stop anyone, it is like a war zone. Paper is flying, people are surging ahead. I grab one of the items and pass it to my wife I(for my son). I take another and try to head out of the crowd. My wife is a short person, and another young lady tries to grab the item out of her hands violently. She may be short, but a toughy – she hangs on to it and gets away. I am trying to follow her direction. The same lady, with a friend as assistant, tries to grab the box that I have. I had to hang on to it hard enough that the box actually crushed. A little elbow work and a standing shopping cart provide distraction to the nice ladies.
As we made it away from the masses, a bunch of things go crashing to the floor from one of the aisles. It is a wonder the building can stand it. We got what we went for, with the added entertainment of seeing animals I had only heard about before – including one that was attracted to wallets. (Not successful I might add.)
We didn’t have to pay to get in, just to get out – we got what we wanted – with free entertainment!
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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