Sunday slides by

[elfs]

Omaha and I decided to forgo Folklife today; the weather was icky and Omaha was in mourning: her Macintosh G5 is in critical condition, and one way or another it's gonna cost bucks to get it fixed. We drove up to the Mac Store so she could hand it over, then headed back home.

I was going to make pretzels, but unfortunately we discovered that Kouryou-chan had left her favorite My Little Pony at the pet shop next door to the computer store, so I had to drive all the way back up to the University District, then back home again. It gave me an opportunity to snag more catfood.

Since both girls have started outgrowing their pyjamas, Omaha and I took them out shopping. While the girls were trying them on in their own dressing rooms, a woman came over from the adults' section and walked into an unoccupied dressing room with a bundle of underwear hand. A minute later someone who I hope was an acquaintance of hers, but was yakking fierce on the cellphone implanted against her head, joined her in the dressing room. Through the doors I heard the new one say, "Oh, those are cute!" I turned to Omaha and said, "Y'know, in the pornoverse, this is where the chikka-wakka chikka-wakka music starts playing."

She gave me a vicious look.

On the way out, we went through the "family friendly" checkout lane. Since the lane was plastered wall-to-wall with "Can I have this‽" candy displays I had to ask: what the heck does "family friendly" mean. The cashier said, "No icky magazines."

Ah, so it's not family friendly, it's reality-blinded. A family-friendly aisle would be full of boring non-candy like shaving and grooming sundries. I suppose an argument could be made to stock it with boring magazines like Popular Mechanics and Rolling Stones as well.

Anyway, we got the kids absolutely darling pyjamas with short-sleeve shirts and shorts, and huge packs of underwear and socks. They kinda needed them.

Comments

It depends on WHICH reality you're thinking of here, and where.

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

The dressing room area seemed very much in tune with the real world to me. In the real world, women sharing a dressing room are usually much more concerned with seeing how clothes look on one another than in getting laid in a public place. Sure, it happens sometimes, but not in the kind of store where you'd want to take the girls.

There ARE no-candy checkout lanes at some grocery stores here. As I recall, they were designed specifically so that parents could check out without the "can I have this" routine. I think that the sundries in those aisles are things like batteries, one-use cameras, hand sanitizers, etc. They're still impulse purchases, but they're less likely to be things that little kids will scream for. It's good marketing and good customer service.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Since the lane was plastered wall-to-wall with "Can I have this‽" candy displays I had to ask: what the heck does "family friendly" mean.

That's what family-friendly *means* to a store. "Herd the children down this way so that they can browbeat you into impulse buying the highest-profit items in the store."