| 9:47p |
"It was the nightmare of my life." Vincent from Project Runway 2006
I worked the first day of the stocktake sales today. The doors opened at 7am, and hundreds of people ran into the store. Some girls were screaming as though they were about the see the Beatles. Then heaps of people packed out my department, and I began to wish that I might pass out so that I could be carried out of the store on a stretcher. I wanted to look all graceful and tragic, like the Ophelia in the lake. At least that way, I could still have my dignity intact. There is nothing elegant about constantly shouting, "It's not on sale...it's not reduced...it only comes in one colour...we have no more!" The store manager had to start controlling how many people could go on the escalators. I had to be escorted by an undercover security guard as I put money away into a safe. I felt the urge to slap someone, anyone, in the face. I kept thinking, "This is the nightmare of my life. This is the nightmare of my life." A customer yelled at me because she thought that I put items on hold for her, when hello, a different Asian girl did it! Not all Asian girls are the same person- get with the multicultural program, woman! Then another lady got mad at me because I had to sell the bag she wanted to the other angry lady. The lady without the bag pleaded, "But why? It isn't fair! But what about me?" And I thought to myself, "Lady, what about people who can't afford food? What about kids in Africa dying from AIDS? Go spend your $700 elsewhere!" But instead, I shrugged my shoulders and walked away, and she probably got her designer handbag fix from somewhere else.
After my shift, my sister and I ran away and flopped in the park. I lay on my back and looked up at the blue sky and the green leaves. Then I rolled over onto my stomach and chatted with Sonya as I picked at bits of grass and watched people sunbaking. I felt better after that. We just needed to be away from consumerism. Shops are icky- that's the lesson I have learnt during my holiday season!
Until later,
Carla Gypsygirl x |