Watching the Panic

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.