I Survived The M&S Sale

This long snaking line of people is the queue I had to wait in this morning. I stupidly/bravely/blindly (pick your own adverb!) decided to go to Marks and Spencers on the first day of their Xmas sales today, in order to spend some Xmas gift vouchers. I can’t actually remember the last time that I went to the sales directly after Xmas, as I normally wait till everyone’s back at work and then I go trawling for bargains. I did, however, get some great buys including a pair of boots reduced from £80 to £35. It was totally packed, though, with people barging their way past with overloaded trolleys spilling discounted clothing left and right. But what shocked me wasn’t the manic buying or the consumer panic – it was the sheer misery of those engaged in the process. I was standing in the queue for around 25 minutes waiting to work our way towards the cash desk, and I was laughing and joking with my youngest son, discussing what shop he would have when he was a grown-up, and what were the differences between the male and female dummies displaying the clothes (fuller lips and slimmer fingers, according to him), while all around us were people moaning and complaining.
“I wish I’d never come here today.”
“Why aren’t there more people serving?”
“Look at those people in front of us with the fully loaded trolley. They’re going to take forever to get through the till!”
At one point, I actually felt like turning round to them and saying, “It’s the first day of the Xmas sales! What did you expect? The store to yourself? A special cash desk reserved only for you?” It just really struck me how your enjoyment of life is all in the way you approach it. While my little boy and I were giggling and having a good blether, others were engrossed in making themselves as miserable as possible. I imagine if they were to write this blog post they would tell you how busy the shops were, and how awfully slow the servers were, and how obnoxious the other shoppers were. And you know, it was busy, and the service was slow because folk were buying so much, but they were going as fast as they could, and the other shoppers were obnoxious due in part to their single-minded focus on getting the best bargain before anyone else, and in part due to their decision to be as miserable as possible during the process. But that’s not what I took away from the experience. I got some fab bargains, and I had a laugh with my family while squeezing past all the moaning minnies blocking the aisles with their trollies. I know who had the better day!