Winnipeg + blowout sales = pandemonium

Last Saturday, I attended the blowout sale at Royal Sports on Pembina Highway. I arrived with two friends, and we were 20 minutes early. To my surprise, we were confronted by a very long line quickly snaking its way around the building.

I asked an understandingly unimpressed employee, and he explained that people started showing up at 7 a.m. for this apparently-epic sale.

As we gradually made our way to the front of the line, I shamelessly eavesdropped on the conversation behind me. (As a CreComm who considered majoring in journalism, I have no problem admitting when I use the people around me for stories.) A couple – probably my age or younger – was complaining loudly and obnoxiously about the snail-like pace of the line. They were angrily watching people inside the sale tent pick up multiple boxes of shoes.

And I quote:

“Oh my god, that person has 10 boxes of shoes! Do you see that?! Put some down, you jerk. Leave some for the rest of us!”

I understand that everyone in line wanted to take advantage of the blowout sale. We would have all stayed home in bed if we weren’t serious about finding a great deal. But it was completely unnecessary for the pair behind me to start heckling people. I thought that Canadians are supposed to be polite, and these individuals were being very, very rude.

What clinched it for me was when the young woman behind me started yelling at a mother and her two children for trying to cut through the line. Both children had just come from soccer practice, and the mother wasn’t even trying to get into the building. All she wanted to do was ask her son - who was the employee manning the entrance – if he wanted coffee. The woman behind me started screaming bloody murder, and the mother quickly went away without taking her son’s coffee order.

I found nothing of quality in the sale, and went home empty-handed. As I exited Royal Sports, I saw the same couple who waited behind me in line waiting to pay for their purchases. The woman had four boxes of shoes clutched in her arms; the man had three. They were both still scowling at everyone around them, and looking simply miserable in general.

Blowout sales seem to make people go crazy in Winnipeg. I could write a book about the insanity I witnessed during Scratch & Save and 10% off days when I worked at RONA. Overall, I was slightly shocked and appalled by the behaviour of the people in line behind me. The unfortunate thing is that they weren’t the only ones who were behaving in this manner. There was many a disgruntled shopper searching for deals at Royal Sports last Saturday morning.