The Hard Sell...

I've never been known as a shopaholic. It's not that I hate to go shopping... I can suck it up with the best of them. It's just that I don't take great joy in spending hours buying STUFF. The two worst are probably A) Grocery Shopping - supermarkets just don't bring out the best in folks. Something about purchasing food seems to put people in a harried rush, impatient mindset and worst of all amplifies their rudeness. The second and most painful shopping trauma is shopping for furniture. Now in the past we've not really had too difficult a time with this... It used to be you hit a couple of stores, found something you liked and just bought it.

Boy Howdy. Times have changed. It's probably been about 5 years since we made a major furniture purchase... we've either been lucky and previous purchases have held up great OR we shopped smart and the price we paid reflects quality construction that lasts. I'm not entirely sure which... But YeeGhads! We traversed Seven different stores last week and not only were the choices repugnant at best the sales people were a horrific experience in of themselves. It ranged from either no help whatsoever to smothering hovering stepping on your heels and slobbering all over you help. The latter being the most Disgusting and offensive. We found that several stores accost you the moment you cross their threshold... inundating you with all the upsales -- the extended warranties, the fabric protection, the financing, the insurance, the all encompassing service provision plan... yada, yada, yada. And what's worse? All this before you've even looked around not to mention selected a single stick of furniture.

I have a friend who buys most of her furniture through the Pottery Barn Catalog... which I always thought was terribly brave. After wasting more than 3 days at 7 stores being bombarded by pushy sales people I'm starting to clue into her Genius -- the girl is off the charts smart.

So now that I'm completely exhausted, mind numbingly frustrated and extremely creeped out - I've ordered myself a PB catalog and plan on making a trip over to one of the major warehouse stores like Costco for Sam's. Choices may be more limited... but then so is the drama. And in the end, I'm just not willing to expel anymore time or effort on the selection of a blinkin' sofa.

I mean Come On... I'm really not so terribly picky... as long as it's not red.