Shopping

I'm no fun to go shopping with. Every weekend my husband and I go grocery shopping together and while he is figuring out the menu for the week and getting the food we'll need to eat, I undoubtably wander off to check out displays, packaging, or products. I'm like a 5 year old with very severe ADD and should probably be kept on a leash given how many times my husband has turned around to discover I've wandered off. But many higher-end food items are on the cutting edge of packaging and display and I'm always interested to see what companies are doing and also watch how people react. The grocery store is like my own mini anthropological study as I watch people interact with products. We also end up with countless random products in our grocery cart simply because I like the packaging and may want to somehow mimic it in any new packaging I have planned. That packaging may not be planned until 2010 or later, but I'll buy the product now and keep it sitting around. My husband jokes that going grocery shopping me has prepared him for taking young children grocery shopping.

And when I go to the mall (which trust me, is a rarity. I am not a fan of shopping and will usually wait until I have a list of 25+ items I need, that can't be bought online for one reason or another, before trekking out to the mall and dealing with that craziness) I'm no better. I can't tell you how many times I've managed to forget half the items on my list simply because I got sidetracked checking out how Williams Sonoma has their products displayed or how some of the cosmetic products in MAC are packaged. I may be in the hunt for a new pair of jeans but will spend 5 minutes trying on jeans and buy the first pair that's remotely comfortable despite the fact the salesgal is more than happy to bring me another 100 pairs to try on but I can kill 30 minutes checking out the displays in the paper store and wondering how what they're showing might be incorporated into our brand.

Now that I think about it, the only store I enjoy in the mall is Storables (the west coast equivelent of The Container Store). There's something about that place that just makes me salivate. Everything is so organized and it gives me a glimmer of hope that one day I too could perhaps be that organized. In reality it's not likely, but that's one store I can wander around in with a glazed expression and not think about the business. With the exception of thinking how organized it could also make my business.