Black Friday shopping has become part of Thanksgiving-like leftovers. I know my Mom and I used to spend part of Thanksgiving Day with the ads deciding what stores we would go to and in what order-like a well calculated battle plan. Then we would be up and out at dawn with our lists, ads and layer upon layer of clothes. When my agoraphobia made it impossible for me to go to the sales it seemed that was the end for our shopping. But then we discovered the wonderful world of online shopping. Not only was this a new way for us to continue to shop, but best of all we could shop in pajamas-it doesn’t get better than that.
This year I decided to go out to a couple of stores on my own. At 7 AM I was at Old Navy, it was a great experience. They had an amazing sale and lots of employees to help and every check out was open. After that I felt confident to try another sale, so about 3 PM I went to Target. It was busy, but not crazy. I had two things I was looking for, the first took me to the men’s department. What an ordeal, they had moved the already crowded racks even tighter together. I still go out in my wheelchair-it makes me feel safe enough to go places. So, I saw what I was looking for and I tried to make my way through the maze to get there. I got almost there when my wheelchair got stuck, I could not move forward or back. So I had a panic attack-I haven’t had one in a very long time. The only way I finally got out was to push a display enough to back out. I tried to find the other item, but had no luck and I decided that I just wanted to leave.
What I learned from this experience is that even if you can go it doesn’t mean you have to go. And shopping is pajamas is so much better than fighting a crowd. So next big sale I will be at my computer with my stack of ads, and yes in my pajamas.
