I was going to the mall in my hometown for an after-Christmas sale. I hadn't planned on getting there so early, but it turned out that I was one of the first people in the mall. I parked my car outside Lord and Taylor and walked inside. It was dim, and the employees, who were still dressed in Christmas outfits, were all goofing off before the store officially opened. As I was passing by the jewelry counter, one female employee wearing a Santa hat rode by on a scooter. She was laughing. She almost ran into me, and gave me an odd look, as though I wasn't invited in the mall this early.
The actual mall area was dark, and there were a bunch of people waiting at the entrance to the mall so they could be the first ones in when the lights came on. I was heading up to join the crowd when the lights came on. Everyone cheered and ran into the mall.
To get to any other store, everyone first had to pass through All Wound Up, the toy store I used to work at. I dreaded having to walk through it, as I hadn't quit work on the friendliest of notes. I tried to walk through as quickly as I could. The store was terribly messy, and despite that every mall customer was forced to walk through the store, no one was buying anything. One employee, Bryan, was sweeping the floor when I walked through. He didn't notice me.
There was a competing toy store right across the hall from All Wound Up. It was called Water Wonders. They only sold electronic bathtub toys. Considering the danger of such toys, the store was not a hit. I looked in the front window and saw no employees. All the toys were marked down to sixty-five percent off, and a lot of them were sitting on the floor outside the store, as though they wanted people to shoplift them.
I was bored, so I walked back through All Wound Up on my way out of the mall. I saw that everything in that store had been marked down to fifty percent off. I regretted that I wasn't in the market for toys, as I would have been able to get some really great bargains.
