Christmas Wrappin'
Say what you want about the economy, but people are still maniacs when it comes to the actual act of shopping for Christmas, and that my friends will never change. I guess it is nice being busy for a change, and especially being busy with actual staff on hand to help you out. Some folks that quit earlier this year and previous years are back for the season, but are sort of angling to stick around in hopes of something full time. Yeah, join the club. Shows how hard it is to find a job out there right now. And believe me, I know.
So what is everybody buying this year? Christmas music is dominated by the new Enya, followed closely by the new Sarah Brightman, both of which I'm monumentally sick of from instore play, not being that big a fan of either anyway. Hands down, though, the top Christmas music seller this season is Elvis Presley's Christmas Duets, a deeply sacrilegious bastardization of Elvis' glorious holiday originals with contemporary country and easy listening female performers trying to wedge their way into his territory with the jarring gaudiness of a candy-cane crowbar. We haven't been able to keep it in stock, to the point where we were burning copies offline onto blank disks and selling them at a cheaper rate -- and people were actually buying them! Anyhoodle, if you like your Christmas Elvis clips with a rudely intrusive Martina McBride situated Forrest Grump-style into one of the greatest live performances ever televised, Merry flippin' Christmas, you mugs! I hope you're all satisfied.
Secular music-wise, the Zac Brown Band is flying off the shelves, and luckily we have plenty because apparently they were anticipating such an onslaught. The same couldn't be said for The Priests, which suddenly got Il Divo-hot overnight and was the must-have for nonsensical bloviating this season. And lucky for us (not) the three hottest sellers of the year -- AC/DC's Black Ice, Guns 'N Roses' Chinese Democracy, and the Sheryl Crow's Home For Christmas -- were all exclusive to Walmart, Best Buy, and Hallmark, respectively. But we sure did get all the customers who had no idea about that!
Movies were all over the board. Classics, new crap, and strangely a lot of television shows from the 70's and 80's, like Roseanne and Little House On The Prairie. Everybody brayed loudly over wanting Planet Earth until they saw how much it was and they shut the hell up (luckily I got mine used ;) ). Other than that it was everything from Planet Of The Apes to Imitation Of Life, and it was kind of fun scavenger hunting with customers, trying to help them track down every single item on their lists. When I wasn't being pulled in every direction at once. Which was constant, so the fun would come in dribs and drabs. Tomorrow? Christ, I don't even wanna think about it...
Oh, and Joe gave me my Christmas presents today. Books, natch! And gift cards for more books! And one item that's, uh, a secret. But it was all good, according to the vernacular of the youth today. And Christmas looks just ducky from 6pm tomorrow on out. My dad's been in the hospital but he was released today, so he gets to spend the holidays with us. And I'm off, and Joe, uh, I still don't know if he's off yet or not. But it's almost over. Tomorrow. I can suck it up. Hold out 'til quittin' time. Then it's a ride through the neighborhoods to look at lights. And smile. And enjoy myself. Because I can.
So what is everybody buying this year? Christmas music is dominated by the new Enya, followed closely by the new Sarah Brightman, both of which I'm monumentally sick of from instore play, not being that big a fan of either anyway. Hands down, though, the top Christmas music seller this season is Elvis Presley's Christmas Duets, a deeply sacrilegious bastardization of Elvis' glorious holiday originals with contemporary country and easy listening female performers trying to wedge their way into his territory with the jarring gaudiness of a candy-cane crowbar. We haven't been able to keep it in stock, to the point where we were burning copies offline onto blank disks and selling them at a cheaper rate -- and people were actually buying them! Anyhoodle, if you like your Christmas Elvis clips with a rudely intrusive Martina McBride situated Forrest Grump-style into one of the greatest live performances ever televised, Merry flippin' Christmas, you mugs! I hope you're all satisfied.
Secular music-wise, the Zac Brown Band is flying off the shelves, and luckily we have plenty because apparently they were anticipating such an onslaught. The same couldn't be said for The Priests, which suddenly got Il Divo-hot overnight and was the must-have for nonsensical bloviating this season. And lucky for us (not) the three hottest sellers of the year -- AC/DC's Black Ice, Guns 'N Roses' Chinese Democracy, and the Sheryl Crow's Home For Christmas -- were all exclusive to Walmart, Best Buy, and Hallmark, respectively. But we sure did get all the customers who had no idea about that!
Movies were all over the board. Classics, new crap, and strangely a lot of television shows from the 70's and 80's, like Roseanne and Little House On The Prairie. Everybody brayed loudly over wanting Planet Earth until they saw how much it was and they shut the hell up (luckily I got mine used ;) ). Other than that it was everything from Planet Of The Apes to Imitation Of Life, and it was kind of fun scavenger hunting with customers, trying to help them track down every single item on their lists. When I wasn't being pulled in every direction at once. Which was constant, so the fun would come in dribs and drabs. Tomorrow? Christ, I don't even wanna think about it...
Oh, and Joe gave me my Christmas presents today. Books, natch! And gift cards for more books! And one item that's, uh, a secret. But it was all good, according to the vernacular of the youth today. And Christmas looks just ducky from 6pm tomorrow on out. My dad's been in the hospital but he was released today, so he gets to spend the holidays with us. And I'm off, and Joe, uh, I still don't know if he's off yet or not. But it's almost over. Tomorrow. I can suck it up. Hold out 'til quittin' time. Then it's a ride through the neighborhoods to look at lights. And smile. And enjoy myself. Because I can.
posted by Melissa at 11:51 PM
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