The second is my usual M.O. You know, as a guy and stuff. Though I will spend ETERNITIES researching stuff online ahead of time. Which is totally a form of shopping.

Guys need to get over themselves. Or something.

It might just be you, Eide. I know guys (coughcoughSTYXNOcoughcough) that can wander for hours and torture their wives.

Yes. Imagine my surprise when I realized that my husband craves twice-monthly browsing trips to the local outlet store so beloved of little old ladies --- the same place my mom drags me to "just to look!"

Well, there's also the fact that I hate people [large crowds]. Especially slow-moving people. Living in the wrong city, I know. I suppress the urges to kill pretty well, so far. Very little slippage. That anyone can prove. As soon as I get that answering machine tape from my lawyer's office.

FEED ME A STRAY CAT

I think it's the difference between shopping and buying. Shopping is like going for a walk in the park. The goal is to just enjoy the experience, so it doesn't matter how long it takes or whether you even end up purchasing anything at all.

Whereas buying is like a military operation. Get in, buy the thing you want, and get out as quickly as possible. You know exactly where it is in the store, ingress and egress routes are planned out in advance, and ideally you won't even stop walking until you're at the checkout. Just snag the item as you go past it.

I generally prefer to buy rather than to shop.

I'm with you on the excessive research ahead of time, Eide. What's worse is if I don't do that before buying, I'll do it AFTER in an effort to reassure myself that I bought the best thing. This sometimes goes badly.

Well, there's also the fact that I hate people [large crowds]. Especially slow-moving people.

Shopping centers and big stores (and, of course, public transit) are how I know for certain that I'm not secretly a Scanner, because if I could cause people's heads to burst into a pulpy red haze, I would have done it already without even trying.

A couple of years ago in mid-December, our household needed something that (we reluctantly decided) would be easiest to get at the mall. We made it about twenty feet inside the door, saw the turgid, slow-moving crowds, looked at each other wordlessly, and turned on our heels to exit.

I have a limited amount of energy I can spend in malls before I turn into a zombie, so if there's something I came for, I will try to do that speedily and maybe browse for a while until the sensory exhaustion kicks in, and then I retreat to the food court and home. I do most shopping online. I'm probably due for a mall trip soon. must stay out of apple store

must stay out of apple store

Gack, the locally owned place that used to sell iPods no longer does. I decided to buy a shuffle, oooooh, maybe four months ago and have been putting it off because ME HATE MALL.

Elsa, dammit, I have a bad headache and laughing makes it worse. STOP IT!

I used to like to shop but now I'm a buyer. If it's the mall, I look up the floor plan online so I know where to park closest to the store(s) I need. In, grab what I want/need, out. Sometimes I even stop long enough to pay for the item(s).

Elsa, dammit, I have a bad headache and laughing makes it worse. STOP IT!

I think I was clear that any head pains, up to and including complete pulpy explosion, is NOT MY DOING.

If it's the mall, I look up the floor plan online so I know where to park closest to the store(s) I need.

... goodness. You're A GENIUS.

So, I just looked at the Mall Directory and sadly but predictably the Apple store is smack-bang in the middle of the hellish corridors. It hardly matters which entrance I use. (But still: the idea is GOLD.)

I was lucky today - Skechers is four stores in on the left, and Accessorize is four stores further along on the right. Had that not been the case, I probably would have left it for another day.

I'm of the opinion the best time to go to the nearest mall is an hour before closing time on a Tuesday or Wednesday or first thing on a Saturday. Then again I also believe Saturday morning is the best time to run errands -- everyone around here seems to stay home until 11a so if I leave a 9a (or even better 8a), I can get everything I need done before the hordes descend.

I wish I could do more online shopping but I have to try on clothes and shoes (damn unstandardize women's clothing) and sending stuff back is a pain in the rear. So any browsing I do is a Saturday mornings activity.

It depends on the kind of shopping I'm doing. Most of the time, I am a huge browser because living in Southern California in the suburbs, the mall becomes the default hangout place when you're a teen who just received her driver's license. So you learn what the shops are, the best ways to get to them, which ones will have things you like to look at and ooh over, which ones to avoid. However, if I'm searching for one specific thing, I will zero in on the store that has it, look strategically, and then head to the next store if that particular one doesn't have what I want.

My ideal shopping trip would be with an unlimited amount of money, every store would ship the purchases to my residence free of charge, and I could see a movie in the middle.

I try to park in the same part of the parking lot regardless of where the stores I plan to go to are, because I have a bad habit of losing my car in large parking lots. I am kind of hopeless.
And yeah, first thing on Saturday is a good time. I will be pooped out before the crowds, and can recover at home from the mall air/junk food hangover and still have time to do something with the day.

I can't remember the last time I was actually in an actual enclosed mall. Maybe a few years ago. We buy 90% of our non-food stuff via the interwebs. I hate going to the 'burbs and there aren't too many stores left in the city so it's just easier to order online.

Senyar, you can take a train to the mall? *Boggles*

Thanks, Elsa! I do have a good idea now and then. I am like you in that I have a limited amount of physical resources so anything to lessen the pain is gold in my book.

I'm totally a Buyer. So I get almost everything online. This also works better because I'm petite sized and have a much better shot at finding my size online.

My hubby, though, is a Shopper.

I avoid going into any retail establishment unless absolutely necessary and unavoidable. Quadruply-so for going into any mall. It simply, completely baffles me that so many people seem to actually enjoy wandering a mall for hours simply looking through the stores. I find the experience actually depressing.

I'm allergic to the mall. Completely and utterly allergic, like it sends me into spasms of loathing, anguish and zombification in about ten minutes. This drives my daughter insane because she likes to go to the mall and when she makes me accompany her I just drag along saying "Oh my god. Look at that. Look at that horrifying object. Look at those awful people. I can't stand it. Are they always here? Can we rescue them? Can we change this? Can I knock a hole in the wall and escape? What if I gnaw my arm off? Can we leave yet?" until she gives up and lets me go home. Conversely, I love shopping around downtowns and going into strange little stores and I actually adore tacky tourist trap souvenir shoppes full of random coffee mugs and small orchestras made of shells. But the actual, enclosed mall? No. Cannot do. Not possible.