A Lady Walks into Target…
Saturday, after having lunch with a friend, I decided to head to Target to pick up Mariah Carey’s new CD. (If you don’t like her, well…it’s OK. Everyone is entitled to their opinion). Target promised a CD with exclusive tracks, and I’m as sucker for getting something extra for free.
This story has a point, I promise. Anyway, I decided to go to a Target near the restaurant where I’d had lunch. This wasn’t my usual Target, but I’d been there a million times when I used to live and work close by.
The CD was the only thing on my to-buy list. I didn’t need anything. I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to buy, so I should have been in and out in five minutes.
In case it’s not blatantly obvious, instead of being in and out in five minutes, I entered since-I’m-here mode as soon as I walked through those double doors.
What’s since-I’m-here mode?
Basically it’s, “Since I’m here, I might as well as look at the clothes since it’s right near the doors and the music section is all the way in the back. Since I’m here, I might as well look at the shoes. Since I’m here, I might as well as see if they have any cute dishes on clearance.” You get the picture.
Since it was a Saturday afternoon, and I didn’t have anything I needed to be doing (other than writing, and surely that doesn’t count), I did nothing to resist since-I’m-here mode. I moseyed on through the clothing section. And then the shoe section. And then the DVD section.
And before I knew it, I was in the book section.
Finally, finally we get to the point of this post. I told you we would.
Anywho, I wanted to check out the book section since it had been awhile since I’d been in this particular Target. Had the shelf space decreased? What books and authors were they carrying?
They had a few aisles of books, but nowhere as many books as they used to carry. The Harlequins that used to be a mainstay of big box stores were nowhere to be found, except the ones from the Kimani line because of the neighborhood’s African-American population.
But one book did catch my attention – Julie James’ It Happened One Wedding. My eyes lit up because the Target closest to my house wasn’t carrying the book. I’m a total Julie fangirl. I also noticed the mass market paperback, Exposed, by Naomi Chase, which happens to be the pseudonym of Maureen Smith, another of my favorite authors. The book had originally been released in trade paperback, and I’m too cheap for trade. I was thrilled to see the cheaper option.
I scooped up both books and stared at them instead of putting them in my cart. Why, you ask?
Because now I had a choice to make. Buy the books or go home and order the ebooks, which I knew would probably be a bit cheaper than the physical books and wouldn’t take up more room in house, which is already overrun with books.
I debated my choices for a few minutes. Ultimately I decided to buy the books because I wanted to do my part to make sure the Target book section doesn’t shrink any more than it already has, and I’m a firm believer in competition in the marketplace.
So, if you’re keeping score at home, I walked out of Target with two books and not the CD I originally came in for because they didn’t have the version I wanted, which gave me the perfect excuse to hit up another Target. Always a hardship, you understand.
The end.
Have your book buying habits changed? Do you buy a mixture of ebooks and print books like I do or have you gone all the way digital or are you still print all the way? Do you anticipate your habits changing? Am I crazy for standing in the middle of Target debating myself?
