Christmas Shopping at the Mall

Recently I made the mistake of going Christmas shopping at the Westfield Milford Connecticut Post Mall on the last Saturday before Christmas. The mall was packed with shoppers buying Christmas gifts. Parking was rough especially since it had snowed the day before in hind sight maybe I should not have gone to the mall knowing it was going to be busy. The snow made parking the car that much more horrendous. Because people could not see lines they took up extra parking spots. After searching for a parking spot I ended up parking on the third tier of the parking garage next to the Cinema de Lux 14. I arrived there around 12:30pm and went in and ate my lunch then proceeded to do my shopping.

I left the mall around 3:15pm and proceeded to my car when I was finished. I got as far as the ramp before I came to a dead stop in a traffic line. It took nearly a half-an-hour before the car moved 10 feet. When I looked out at the traffic on the second floor of the parking garage all I saw were lines of cars trying to leave the mall. When I looked past the parking garage to exits leaving the mall all I saw were lines of traffic of cars trying to leave the mall.

The second floor of the parking garage as well as the cars behind me rang of honking horns. It became even worse when people started screaming at each other. They were yelling “Move”, honking their horns and getting very angry. The cars deadlocked in lines. You could smell the carbon monoxide coming from all the cars.

There was no courtesy from one person to another from the people in their vehicles. The people did not sound at one with the holiday spirit at all. In fact when I opened the window to let in a little air from the heat running all I wanted to do was close it quickly. It left me in disgust and with a feeling of dread. These sounds continued for hours as the cars creep very slowly out of the parking garage. The people who parked in the garage had no idea that they would to some degree become trapped like rats in cages. To top that there were the people who felt there no reason why they couldn’t sneak up and cut in line for their own greed to steal more time in their day, by forcing someone else to wait that much longer. These actions showed desperation in people and their ideas of getting ahead as well as what they are willing to do. It was not a very pretty picture.

I may sound as if I am ranting, but all I saw was very disappointing. Here we were at a time of giving, and there were some who had no appreciation for other people who were stuck in the situation as they were and they did not appear to care. An event such as this just requires a little bit more courtesy and patience from ourselves.