Shopping Wimp Evolves into Marathon Shopper

Shopping Wimp Evolves into Marathon Shopper

My husband is not a shopper.  In fact, he has been known to come home with severe headaches and stomach complaints after a short Christmas shopping trip to the local Mall.  However, after twenty some years of marriage I have learned his shopping induced illnesses are selective. 

I first discovered this fact when we took a short jaunt to Kearney, Nebraska to visit Cabela’s, an outdoorsman’s paradise.  From our previous shopping endeavors I had assumed that we would be in the store just a little while.  After all, this was a man who became ill after ten minutes in the local discount store. 

Well, I was wrong.  I bypassed his offer to stay at the motel with an indoor pool where our young daughters could happily entertain themselves for hours.  I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about.  Besides, I was sure the it would be educational for the girls to see the exotic animals displayed in Cabela’s Kearney store. 

We learn from our errors, and I learned an important lesson that day as I switched a two-year-old from hip to hip after her short little legs pooped out in the first minute in the store.  Our six-year-old was interested in the fish tanks and trophy animals for about thirty minutes, twenty minutes past Mel’s old shopping record.

 At that point I was still holding out and having fun looking at the treasures.  Cabela’s buyers really have assembled an amazing collection of hunting, fishing, and camping supplies all in one spot.

However, cranky two-year-olds-- make that heavy, cranky two-year-olds-- and irritable six-year-olds diminish the luster of the most attractive store display. After a record hour in a store, I kept think my spouse’s looking and wishing was nearly complete.  In reality, he was just beginning.  He didn’t even require a second wind.   Finally, in desperation, I pulled him out of the store to return the girls and me to our motel.  He went back to Cabela’s for another three hours that day and again the next morning as the girls and I slept in.

This should have foreshadowed all our subsequent outdoor shopping adventures.  When we went to the Sidney store.

Similar events occured when we detoured to Bass Pro-Shop in Springfield, Missouri during a short canoeing excursion.  By then, I knew that simply passing through an outdoorshop portals increased his shopping endurance 100 fold.  The man who wilts at a mall was a marathon shopper when the prizes involved lures, deer scent, tree bark camo, belly boats, etc. 

What amazes me more than the increase in his endurance, is his self-restraint.  I know he would love to own much of what he looks at, but many times he exits the store with a few small necessities.  I don’t know how he restrains himself, but thank goodness he does.  Of course, then I have to follow his lead and resist that terrific elk imprint dinnerware for four that I really loved. 

The girls were much older and experienced shoppers themselves.  But good old dad outlasted them by a good two hours and an unaccompanied return trip the next day.  Thank goodness we had relatives to visit while he shopped. 

Similar events occured when we detoured to Bass Pro-Shop in Springfield, Missouri during a short canoeing excursion.  By then, I knew that simply passing through an outdoorshop portals increased his shopping endurance 100 fold.  The man who wilts at a mall was a marathon shopper when the prizes involved lures, deer scent, tree bark camo, belly boats, etc. 

What amazes me more than the increase in his endurance, is his self-restraint.  I know he would love to own much of what he looks at, but many times he exits the store with a few small necessities.  I don’t know how he restrains himself, but thank goodness he does.  Of course, then I have to follow his lead and resist that terrific elk imprint dinnerware for four that I really loved.