Sunday, January 24, 2010

What is a glassybaby worth?

On Saturday morning, friend Toni Hoffman and I ventured to the semi-annual glassybaby seconds sale in Madrona. I have long been a fan of glassybabys, the little hand blown glass votive candle holders that come in a panoply of colors. They are expensive at $40 retail each and the seconds sale seemed like a good opportunity to pick up a few at the special price of $26 each. So Toni and I arranged to leave early, stop for a Tully's latte on the way, and get there half an hour before the shop was to open at 10:00am.
When we arrived at 9:30 am, the line was two blocks long! People in the know had lined up at 8:00 a.m. and brought their own cloth shopping bags and baskets. See Toni at the right-side of the top photo above standing in the enormous line. We waited outside (brrrrrrrrr!) in line for about an hour and a half.
Once the store opened, they continued to move people into the store as fast as possible and we were finally admitted to the store about an hour and a half later with frozen toes. Once inside, it was total bedlam. There were far too many people in such a small space and it was virtually impossible to move through the store. I quickly became claustrophobic and lost my appetite for shopping so selected the first few bluish glassybabys I saw and headed for the exit. There wasn’t really an organized check-out line, but just people shoving in a maelstrom trying to get close to a cashier. Toni, obviously with more patience than I, took time to select several glassybabys and light candles in each one to see how they actually looked when lit. See photo above of Toni and photo of the crowd inside the store.
I know that the next time I feel I must buy another glassybaby, I will happily pay full price and go on any day BUT the day of the seconds sale!

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