Six Lessons Learned While Standing in Line

The Monday Minute


SIX LESSONS LEARNED WHILE STANDING IN LINE

For the first time in many years I ventured out on Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving when the Christmas shopping season officially kicks off. For those outside the United States I should probably explain that Black Friday is a good thing, not a day of mourning - it represents the day most retailers become profitable for the year or "in the black."

Over the past 20 years or so it has become a day which starts earlier and earlier with some Malls now opening at midnight on Thanksgiving night. In Omaha we haven't gone quite that crazy - our big stores opened at 5 a.m. I got to the first one a little after 6 - one of the big office supply stores to pick up some computer accessories for stocking stuffers. Then the second store - no lines, no problems.

Then I went to Nebraska Furniture Mart, the largest furniture store in the country. Big mistake - huge! Well, not really because their Friday morning bargains were truly bargains and after shopping for an hour, I got in one of the 20 checkout lines which stretched from one side of the store to the other. It was almost four hours before I inched my way to the cash register. Here are six lessons I learned on the way:

• I was very smart to go to the bathroom before I started shopping. : )
  
• When the line goes at a perpendicular to the main traffic aisles, everyone who is still shopping wants to cross in front of you. Life is easier if you just leave three feet between you and the person in front of you. Fewer people bump into you if they can move freely.
  
• Time goes faster if you sing Christmas Carols under your breath - it reminds you why you got up this early and helps you forget how much your feet hurt.
  
• You can do your full cardiac warm-up routine standing in line. Actually in four hours you can do it many times - my rehab nurses will be proud.
  
• Smiles go a long way when everyone is getting irritated. If you sympathize with the people around you whose feet hurt as much as yours they feel better and so do you.
  
• The person behind you hasn't learned all these valuable lessons and spends the whole time complaining that our line moves the slowest, people must be cutting in, the store needs better staff and on and on. Other than a nod of sympathy, what can you do? My final solution came when we finally made it to the cashier's desk. I told the woman behind me to take my place and check out first. It cost me another two minutes but made her think she had won the lottery.

The Christmas season offers lots of opportunities for stress - long lines, tired feet, the conflict between generous impulses and budget realities - I could go on and on. But it also offers wonderful opportunities to give little gifts of the season.

• You can let someone ahead of you in line or allow a driver to exit from a crowded parking lot.
  
• You can smile at a tired cashier who has been hearing about long lines all day.
  
• You can give a call to a neighbor when you are heading to the store to see if she needs anything.
  
• You can take some neighborhood kids downtown to see the Christmas lights one evening.
  
• You can carve out an hour to visit someone you know who is in a nursing home.
  
• Give a quarter to every bell ringer you pass - keep some change handy just for this. It's not much, but it will make you feel good and it helps fill the kettles.

You can add a lot of Christmas spirit for not much effort and almost no money. Do you have some other ideas? I'd love to hear what you've found to do to keep up your Christmas spirit. Nothing should cost more than a quarter or take more than an hour. Think you can find 29 things for the next 29 days? Send me your ideas and we'll publish as many as we can in a future Minute.

This is Nancy Kirk with your Monday Minute.

Comments

[janet gordon]

Hi Nancy: hope you are well and enjoying the winter. I haven't an idea that quite matches your criteria, but this Christmas I tried to make many of my gifts a kiva.org gift certificate. This organization matches people making small loans to those in developing countries who need such loans.Micro finance such as these loans are lifting many people out of poverty and into the ranks of successful small business owners. Win/win - a green gift that avoids rampant consumerism while developing a strong and independent population in countries in dire need.
Thought I'd reach out and contact you - it's been a long time since we talked.
Janet Gordon in snowy and blowy coastal Noca Scotia