Helping Christmas Gift Giving

One of the perks to working in the video game industry is that I get certain discounts on games and hardware. Once I walked into GameStop and mentioned the company where I am employed. The salesperson gave me a professional discount right on the spot. I didn't even ask for one. The discounts I get through my company can be even nicer, especially during this time of year.

Last Friday night I attended a Christmas party for the law firm where my wife used to work. I think we got invited this year simply so several of the attorneys could take advantage of my discounts. Actually that is not true, we got invited because it is a close-knit law firm and my wife left on good terms with everyone. I did have fun though playing a joke on one of the paralegals and her husband.

Several weeks ago the paralegal reached out to my wife and asked if I could pick up a game from a company that I don't even work for. I have a contact that can get me games there for a huge discount and so I picked up the game. When my wife delivered it to the paralegal, she was told that I should not mention the game to the husband at the Christmas party as it is a gift for him. Naturally I had to have a little fun with that.

I arrived at the venue and started talking with all of my wife's former associates. When I got to the paralegal and her husband, I said, "I'm not supposed to mention the next generation console your wife had me pick up for you."

The husband's face lit up and he asked, "Really?" excitedly.

I had to come clean and let him know I was joking. I then explained that none of the consoles will be ready until next year and we all had a good laugh. The paralegal then covered things up by asking me to pick her up a few more things for her boys. We all laughed about the exchange throughout the rest of the evening and it made for an enjoyable party.

Why Do We Have Malls

Last night I went with my youngest daughter to do some Christmas shopping. She had a list of places that she wanted to go and one of them was at the local shopping mall. I was amazed that we parked only 3 spaces from the front door. Then I was even more amazed at how empty it was inside. Sure it was a Tuesday evening, but I remember not being able to walk through a mall when I was a kid trying to do my own Christmas shopping.

I think online retailers have really taken a significant share of business from the local malls. How can small businesses compete with online prices? Everyone wants to get a good deal and an online presence is a lot less expensive than a brick-and-mortar storefront.

We visited exactly 3 stores in the mall. The first was the Vans store because I wanted to see what cool styles they had. I am looking for something specific and wanted to see if they had it. Nope, they didn't. However they did have a display where you could custom order your own shoes. No need to go to the mall though, just visit their website and order it from there.

The next store was a candy store where they had every candy I could think of. Naturally I had to get a little something for myself. That was one store worth going back to visit later.

The last store was Bed, Bath, and Beyond. While some of the stores had nobody in them, this one was full of women and girls picking up items. There were 4 check-out stations running as fast as they could and there was still a 5 minute line. It was as if the whole mall existed for that one store.

Naturally I came home and surfed the Internet for gifts to give my siblings. 20 minutes later, I had everybody shopped for and got the best prices available. I could see why the mall was seemingly empty. This leads me to the question of why we still have malls? Surely it can't be because of Bed, Bath, and Beyond.