Senior Shopping

For my birthday last week, a friend sent me an H&M gift card. Their only shop here at the moment (there used to be two) is at the big shopping center 'across town' (from my point of view). It's not somewhere I go very often, as I can usually find what I need closer to home. But yesterday seemed a good day for it, so I decided to continue my "extended birthday celebrations" with a shopping trip. Changing buses is still a messy business here because of reconstruction work going on in the city; but I can walk to the railway station (15 min), and get a bus from there that takes me to within walking distance (another 10 min) from my destination.

I've hardly ever been into that H&M in that shopping mall, as there are other chain stores that are usually my first choice when I go shopping for clothes. If not for the gift card, I'd probably have turned around at their entrance this time as well. Apparently, the latest fashion is designed for people wanting to show off their bellies:

I had to proceed a lot deeper into the store to finally find an item that I really felt I wanted: A peaked winter cap. Actually that's something I would have gone looking for later on in the season anyway, if I hadn't happened to find it now. So I bought that. It only cost me half the value of the gift card; but fortunately it's the kind of card that doesn't have to be spent all at once. So as I didn't find anything else that I really wanted, I left it at that for now. 

...Trying on the new hat at home...

Just browsing one store had somehow manged to make me both tired and hungry (it was about lunch time), so after that I went and bought a hot dog and a bottle of water, and sat down for a while on bench outdoors in the sun before proceeding to the next mall - where my favourite clothing shop is... Turned out they were having an end-of-summer sale: 50% off on a lot of summer fashion items. Which was of course hard to resist!

So I came out of there with three items. One was a lilac t-shirt I had my eye on already back in the spring, but decided not to buy then, as I realised I didn't really have anything else in my wardrobe to match it. Now, I happened to also find a lilac shirt that did. And both at half price... Perfect for next summer, even if this one is nearly over.

I also found a red tennis shirt, which I think will match a red cardigan I bought last autumn in the same shop. (That cardigan is still in summer storage down in the basement, so haven't checked yet. But even if not, it will also go with grey or black or dark blue.)

Now I come to a part of the story that I hesitate to share - but with a special wink to Sandra the Madsnapper, I will... It's about how I almost went shoplifting instead of shopping!

The shop where I (eventually) bought the items above has two floors. I found these items upstairs. The desk where you pay is downstairs. On my way down the escalator, with the clothes hanging over my arm, my thoughts were already far ahead of the rest of me, thinking that I should visit the toilet  before heading back home. 

Getting off the escalator, the entrance/exit is straight ahead of me. I walk out into the mall, proceed down the indoors "street" corridor with other shops on both sides, take another escalator up to the second floor of the mall where the toilets are... And, having got that far - I suddenly become aware that I'm still carrying three items of clothing folded over my arm (still on their hangers) that I haven't paid for!!! 

Highly embarrassed, I turn around, go back down the other escalator, back along the street corridor (not crowded, but also not empty), and back into the shop. There were no "beeps" to warn me (or anyone else), neither when I went out nor when I went back in (as there usually are in most big shops these days). Not a single person seemed to have taken any notice of me carrying a bunch of clothes fully visible over my arm, still with hangers in them, neither when I went out nor when I went back in (nor while I was walking along the corridor outside). The cash desk is at the back of the shop on the entrance floor, and not really overlooking neither the escalators nor the entrance, as there are a lot of clothes racks in the way in between. So once back inside, I decided to just ignore the whole incident myself as well. I walked up to the cash desk as if I'd come straight down from upstairs and had never made that detour to the outside world; paid for my items and left with a clean conscience. Walked out of the shop again, now with my purchases neatly folded in a bag with the shop's name on it. Back up to the toilets; then sat down for a minute or two on a bench to check the bus time table on my phone; and managed to precisely catch the next one back home (i.e. to the railway station, from where I again walked the last bit back). 

'Senior moment'? Or just something that could easily happen at any time of life? 

The only similar incident that comes to mind for me was decades ago. That time I only nearly walked away with a small cotton reel, which I had happened to put in my pocket while needing my hand for something else. But I think I remembered before actually leaving the shop (so escaped committing a crime that time as well). 

Should perhaps add that the once or twice in my life that I've been stopped by "beeps" when leaving a shop, it wasn't my fault at all, but the cashier having missed to remove the whatsit when I payed!