Our First Trip to Market

Mom and I had a successful first trip to Market, give or take a few moments. We quickly learned a couple things AmericasMart doesn't explain on their Web site. Not all of the stores are open Monday thru Thursday as their "Open Daily" advertisements say. The bathrooms don't unlock until after 10am. The stores open before 10am, even though they say the hours are 10am-4pm. (They don't close at 4pm either.)

Before Mom and I left on Sunday, my Mom, Dad and I prayed for our trip. Dad mostly pleaded with God to help Mom and I both return alive. My mom and I are a lot alike, and he was a little worried that one of us might leave the other one at the top of the 19th floor or better yet push the other one off one of the bridges that connect the buildings. I am happy to report that we are both alive and well today. Thank you for your prayers Dad.

Let me first say that while you may think it is all fun and games to shop for two days straight, it's not as glamorous as you think. The morning of the first day we were bright eyed and bushy tailed. We had a strategy and began shopping. At this point you carefully inspect every piece of merchandise in each showroom. You begin learning about minimums, ship to, shipping dates, the dreadful "backorder" word, and more. Around lunch, I began picking up the pace...It was after the 4th hour of looking at Christmas stuff alone that I began asking the question "What do we need from this showroom..." Dreading Mom's response of "I don't know, let's just see what they have." Towards the end of the day you spend less and less time in each showroom and quickly learn how to maximize window shopping. Mom had the bright idea that we would just pack snacks and shop through the day. I don't suggest it. Take breaks, ones that include food. You will see that at the end of day two, she learned how important this is. By the end of day one, we purchased all of our Christmas and some gift lines. We were tired and worn slap out. Praise God for no issues on MARTA or GA 400 on the way back to Michelle's house. (Thank you again for allowing us to stay at Casa de Michelle!)

Day two: Every muscle in my legs hurt. How is it possible for your hips to be sore just from a day of shopping? We were ready to finish up our shopping for the Celebrations Gift line. Our goal today was handbags, jewelry and luggage. Here is another tip: DO NOT and I repeat, DO NOT buy anything from Lilly at TTI in building 3. Most of you know that I get a little cranky when I get hungry. I was at that point (again) in the afternoon of day 2. We had a pile of merchandise at the register to purchase from Lilly. She was trying to pull a quick one on us by charging us more than she quoted for some luggage. When we questioned her about it, she pretended she didn't understand our English. Mom tried to explain it and then I tried to explain it...and then I think she understood perfectly when we walked out of her store leaving a $1500 order at the register. No translation needed. We told everyone we passed not to shop with her.

After a full day of shopping and no eating, it was time to hit the road back to Chipley. Needless to say, all odds were against me. I needed to go to the bathroom, I was beyond hungry and the GPS in the car was sending us in circles in downtown Atlanta...at rush hour. Every time my mother would open her mouth I would remind her that it was not a good time to talk. Dad, please pray that mom let's me eat next time.

We returned home about 8:30 Tuesday night and unloaded a bunch of our new items at the store. Many of the items are being shipped to us. So, if you need a gift, we do have a better selection now and we will be getting items in for the next couple of weeks. I will try to add pictures of some of our gift lines.