Kathy's Folly

Yes, dear friends, I thought I was being quite sensible in choosing The Bins over The Mall for Black Friday.  To my surprise, The Bins was no less packed than The Mall would have been.  My first big score of the day was a parking space.
 
Once I got inside I discovered that every.single.cart. was in use.  Naturally, I walked right over to a simply perfect typewriter table ($5) that I was unable to claim as my own because I had no shopping cart.  Ever the optimist, I looked around and found a cardboard box and started picking through the bins.  The place was packed and I wasn't finding a lot but the box was awkward to carry around so I went back up to the front of the store no less than five times in hopes of snagging a cart.  Adding insult to injury, after one trip to the front I spotted a woman pushing a cart with MY typewriter table in it.

I must have been wearing my frustration on my face because the gentleman watching the exit pointed out two young ladies loading their purchases into bags and told me to go ask them for their cart.  I took his suggestion and they very kind and dumped the contents of their cart onto the floor and gave it to me.  Added together, they still would have been younger than me, so I don't think I scared them.
 
No sooner did I score a cart and head down another isle than I looked up and saw Kathy's Folly perched on top of a pile of clothes, video tapes and record albums.  I was not going to let THIS one slip through my fingers.  Have cart, can do.  With the help of a young man who figured better to help me than lift is off me, I got it perched across the top of my cart.

In case any of you are wondering, no, you cannot efficiently push a cart through a crowd with an antique steamer trunk perched on top of it.  Small children in real and present danger.  The crowd parted and I made my way to the checkout where I encounter a fourth good Samaritan.

An older gentleman asked how far I had to take that thing to get to my car.  Did I just refer to someone as "older" just because they have white hair?  Now I will admit, I have lived in the city a long time and I am a little jaded.  I had already fended off sob-story-bus-ticket guy and I'll-make-you-a-deal-QZ guy that morning.  I figured this guy just wanted to haul the trunk for me so he could demand a tip like the let-me-help-you-with-the-Can-Do bums.  Not so!  He just wanted a cart, just like me!  Note to self: You meet the nicest people at The Bins!

I think some sort of Black Friday-induced competitive-shopping hysteria must have taken hold of me because I have NO use for this thing and less space to store it.  But it was $10, what could I do?