The point is that I went into a Dollar Store yesterday, which is the weirdest idea for a store ever; I was slow to grasp it. Nothing is labeled with a price, of course, because you don't need that. So I kept carrying things up to the cashier, asking "How much is this?" And the answer was the same every time. "A dollar." What was kind of sad, now that I think about it, is that she didn't stop to explain: every single thing is a dollar, you can stop asking, fer crissakes. She just kept answering until I figured it out on my own.
It is the oddest organizing principle for a store. It doesn't have a normal theme, like food, building materials, or clothing, but around a price. Are people sitting at home, thinking, sheesh, I'm all out of things that are a dollar. Where could I go? Oh, I know!
I was so amazed by the whole thing that I wandered around with a basket and threw stuff in it. (After verifying the price with the clerk.) It was almost like that coma I fell into in Target one day 10 years ago. You know the one I mean.
What I bought:
- A small square plastic box with 100 toothpicks in it. I think this is a good deal, if you need toothpicks. Which I don't, but still. If I had mini-marshmallows, I could build a model of the periodic table.
- Six foil cake pans. They came in groups of two, for guess how much? Yes. I think this is a terrible deal, but I need them to make special stuff for my bees, so money is no object. I spent $3 on these 6 pans.
- Two rolls of parchment paper. I love parchment paper for all the obvious reasons, and would have bought it even if it were $3, because that's how I roll.
I've been thinking about the dollar store ever since I left, and realized I need to go back, because I was so distracted by the price that I didn't really notice who else was shopping there or what they were buying.