Nice Try, Lady

In the shopping wilds of a store like TJ Maxx, every girl must fend for herself.

There is so much to see: handbags and clothes and shoes and kitchen wares and bedding and home decor, you really have to have your wits about you and when there is a sale? It's go time. Time to bust out the guerrilla shopping.

There are many guerrilla shopping tactics one might employ. I myself am a fan of looking at the "Just Tried On" rack in dressing rooms because more than once I have found some fab one-of shirt or pair of pants that were not out on the floor in my size/the color I wanted/what have you. I have also, and I am not proud to admit this, put something in my cart that I wasn't absolutely sure I wanted because someone else was eying it and hey, I wasn't going to let THEM make the decision about whether or not I go home with this item.

Put it in your cart. Ask questions later.

But over the weekend I came across another tactic. The "Hey that's mine" line of defense against fellow shoppers.

Allow me to explain.

There was a 25% off clearance sale going on at TJ Maxx this weekend and as such, it was mobbed even more so than usual. My mom and I got there in the late morning and made an initial sweep of the store and then made our way methodically through the departments we were interested in. The first of which were the winter coats and accessories. After trying on a bunch of coats (I really love trying anything on that does not necessitate going into a dressing room), I alighted on the scarf display and began rooting around. I found a few, nothing special, but towards the back of the rack I found what I had been looking for. Teal. Glittery threads woven through it. Fabulous fringe on the end. I tried it on and when my mom agreed it was fab, I reached for the tag only to find it was on sale and with all the savings was only about $6!

A woman passing by remarked how nice the scarf was and I said something along the lines of "I know and $6? You can't beat that". At this point, another woman trying on a coat nearby became interested in my find.

"Oh hey, that's mine", she yelled out.
"Uhhh Excuse me?" I asked her.
"That's my scarf", she repeated.

I told her I had found it on the rack, in the back in fact, hung up with all the other scarfs.

"I know, I put it there. I was going to come back for it later".

First of all, this woman had a CART and when one has a cart, one does not need to put things back and come back for it. One puts whatever it is in the cart and goes on their way. And I am sorry to say but liking something does not make it yours or else my shoe collection would be three times as large.

For another thing, It wasn't like shoved in the back of the row, clearly hidden. It was hung neatly as though it had never been disturbed.

And none of that even matters, really.

I didn't really know what to say, not having been accosted in such a manner before so the woman went on "You're not going to take it, are you?"

At this point I felt a little "F you" about this. Who are you? You see me find a beautiful inexpensive scarf and immediately try to trick me out of it by making me feel bad and putting me on the spot? I had no doubt that she was lying. So I said "Yes, I'm taking it".

The woman shot me the dirtiest of looks at which point my mom joined in and said "No you're not, I'm buying it FOR you. " just to prove a point. And with that we moved onto the home decor aisle. And I wore my fab new scarf the very next day.

So kudos to you, weird lady. I'm sure your "Oh that's mine" technique has worked on people more scared of confrontation than me. But I consider this to be the LAZIEST of guerrilla shopping techniques. And for further reference, if you really do want to hide something?

For heaven's sake go to the rug department and stash it under one of those.