I am an avid shopper, shopping
gives me relaxation. You leave me in a shopping mall in morning, till evening I
can be there without any issues. I need food, water and washroom to survive
there for that long. Best part about shopping malls or big retail stores it
that, you get everything at one place and you get to learn a lot. Shopping and
learning doesn’t rhyme well? Yes, shopping can be a learning experience,
because shopping malls and big retail stores are the only places, where one can
see all the latest launches in reality. All products advertised in TV, can be
seen first in malls, then in a shop near you. Shopping malls gives us the
liberty to double check the products we intent to buy, reason we are selecting
the products ourselves. I have the habit of checking the expiry date,
ingredients of the product I buy. Even check competitors’ products of the same range,
which takes my time.
Now a days my shopping partner is
Harish, we go together for shopping as it is convenient for both of us and we
have each other’s company too. But what happened today at DMart, we will never
forget, and it was a learning experience for both of us, day full of adventures
with twist and turn. We left home by 11.am and 5 minutes before DMart Harish
tells me, he forgot to carry his wallet. I told no worries “ you can use my
card” What are friends for, to help your friend in need. Before going for
shopping I check cards twice.
We reached DMart by 11.30am,
there was huge rush, firstly because of weekend, then due to Onam festival. Car
parking was full, then we saw a car moving out, Harish got out of the car and
helped me park the car there, before anyone occupies that slot. Harish told he
will get 2 trolleys for us, as inside DMart it was not available due to heavy
rush. While Harish was busy arranging the trolleys, I got all our shopping bags
sealed at the security counter. In total 4 bags, so I kept all 3 bags in one
and got it locked. In the mean while Harish arranged for the trolleys. We got
inside and got busy with our purchases. DMart is divided into 3 floors, after
doing purchases from the ground floor, we left for 2nd and 3rd
floors.
We left our trolleys on ground
floor like others did, Harish had done massive purchases and mine was less
comparatively. We spend around an hour in 2nd and 3rd
floor as it had clothes section, where we spend maximum time, checking out
clothes. After an hour when we came to ground floor, we had a shock waiting for
us. My trolley was missing, we searched everywhere but couldn’t find it. Then
Harish saw few of my purchases spread on top of ice cream freezer, we were
thunderstruck. Only thought which came to our mind was, how can people be so
uncultured here? Usually we have decent crowd here. Seems like decency was only
in their attire and not in their behavior, this act was the perfect example of
it. More than my purchases, we were worried about the shopping bags. How will
we carry the purchases home? It’s not that we can’t buy shopping bags at DMart
but we wanted our bags as they were bigger bags than the one store was offering
us.
Harish asked me check all the
trolleys to locate our shopping bags, I was sure we will not find it but Harish
was confident about finding it. Harish started looking for our lost shopping
bags, in the mean while I took one basket to transfer my purchases from the ice
cream freezer to it and bought the remaining things.
Then it striked me about the CCTV
cameras in the store, I went to the support desk and asked if they can show me
the CCTV clippings of the area where my trolley was kept. Help desk guy told me
that they don’t have a camera installed at that particular angle first thing
and second thing, they have a put a notice on the wall, not to leave trolleys
there. This was not the first time I was leaving the trolley there, I keep it
there every time I visit the store, but today the store guy showed me the notice,
which I ignored or was not noticed by me before. Whatever, help-desk was of no
use to me.
I finished my billing and was
waiting for Harish to come, even then I was looking at people’s trolley making
an exit from the billing counter. Since it was raining heavily, people are
standing in the mall itself after being billed. I just turned around and saw a
lady holding some shopping bags in her hand, it seemed similar to me. A closer
look, god its mine, I told her you are having my shopping bag, where did you
find it? Did you take my trolley? Firstly she apologized for keeping the bag with
her and then she told me that, this bag there in an empty trolley which she
took. And accidentally she took that bag because her bag and my bag were similar
in looks. It’s difficult to believe her story though but I was happy to get my
bags. Informed Harish also, who was nearing the billing counter. People are
right when they say, “people make mistakes while committing crime”. This lady’s
husband emptied the trolley to accommodate his things but didn’t recognize the
shopping bag, which eventually was picked by his wife and helped me in getting
my bags back.
After billing when we came out by
3pm another surprise was waiting for us. Harish took the car keys and went
ahead I followed him back. I told him to meet me at one point but when he
didn’t turn up. I went looking for him, our car was missing. Harish asked me
where I parked the car. I showed him the place. It was then I noticed that the
place, where car was parked was actually a no parking zone. Initially I was
scared that the car was stolen but when I saw that board, it didn’t take us long
to know where our car would be. We booked a cab but due to heavily rain or
traffic it was getting delayed, in the mean while Harish was able to arrange an
auto and we went to police station with all those shopping bags.
When I didn’t see the car there,
I panicked a bit. Then decided to go inside the police station and check, one
constable came out and told me that traffic police station is slightly ahead.
We went there, still we were not able to see the car and then Harish noticed
few people standing at a place. He told me let’s go there and check, he was
right, car was there. I can’t tell you, how happy I was, when I saw the car. It
was clamped, we asked one person who was standing there from the traffic
department to allow us to keep our shopping bags in the car. He allowed us to
keep our bags in the car. That guy told us, that we need to pay fine for
parking the car in NO Parking ZONE. We inquired about the fine amount. I
googled it to cross check, he was right. We asked him where to make the
payment, he told us to wait for some time. Harish gets a call from the cab
driver, inquiringly where you are sir. In the eagerness to reach police station
he didn’t cancel the cab booking, when we got inside the auto.
After 15 mins, an officer came, he
collected the fine amount and issued us the receipt. Clamp was removed, we got
inside the car and left for home. When we reached home, time was 5 pm. We were
very tired after all these unexpected adventures, we experienced today during
our weekly grocery shopping.
I think myself and Harish will
always remember this shopping experience. Once at room I was thinking, if
Harish was not accompanying me today, then it would have been tough day for me
to handle everything all alone. It’s better to have a shopping partner, you
never know when things go upside down.
