With my shopping done, and, in fact, most of the gifts already opened by my family and loved ones, my mission to find the last stocking stuffer was a pretty simple one. My mother loves Japanese Milky candies and the only place to get them is at T&T, the Asian grocery store which has a branch not too far from my house.
As I said, I had a clear game plan, but I think I was the only one. I made only two stops, and the second was mainly out of curiosity. What I witnessed was a frenzied buying spectacle. Clearly some last minute shoppers were desperately searching for gifts and their behaviour evoked scenes from several zombie apocalypse films I have seen. There was no plan and they were just hoping to stumble upon a gift that they hadn’t already stumbled upon in the days and weeks leading up to this. The panic in their eyes was unmistakable.
I know I shouldn’t mock too hard as I have been one of them and this year’s early completion is a fluke, or perhaps having learned my lesson years before, I no longer wanted to be part of the crowd desperately looking for something on the 24th of December.
After tiring of the spectacle, I decided to go and have a chicken Shawarma at a Pita place. I think I made the right choice.