I set out today to buy some of my Christmas gifts. In particular, I wanted to find a gift for K, with our agreed price under $20, including tax. I feel strange saying that I don't want to buy a book, but that's what I always buy. This year, I mean to be original.
At the mall, there seems to be a mass-marketing campaign afoot in suburban malls-- one designed to insist that gifts ought to be over $20. All else falls under the domain of "stocking stuffers" or the vaguely impersonal house warming gifts. So what is available in my price range? I could buy a single bottle of lotion reminiscent of a pine plantation but it seemed too impersonal. I could buy her a hat, but she just got a red one that is liable to blow away in a stiff wind. I walked through a litany of suburbia: the Limited, Banana Republic, Macy's, Nordstrom's, Anthropologie, Nordstrom's Rack, H and M, and smaller stores whose name escape me. The Apple store was packed. As it has been for months. The iPhone really is beautiful. And untouchable to someone still under contract with Verizon. Not to mention the price of the data plan.
Ultimately, I found something small- something that will travel well to MN and then to Boston.
Something under $20 that if she doesn't like, she can take it back with her gift receipt.
Or we'll start talking about a gift exchange.
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On principle, I dislike malls. However chain stores are a unwelcome necessity. Gifts can be returned if the receiver does not like it - no matter where he or she lives.
At the C Galleria, I realized that I can whiz through a mall in ten seconds flat. Too much practice at the MOA, for better or worse.
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