My latest shopping experience

Yesterday, in a nutshell was simply wonderful!

I was on the phone for a while with a girlfriend...getting the skinny on the area, airline deals and that sort of thing. OH am I ever going to love being able to travel out of the country for CHEAP! I want to get the spouses together for a trip someplace fun this fall :-)

Speaking of spouses...having lunch today with the leadership spouses. I look forward to getting to know all of the ladies and gentlemen who make up this small group. I want to get with them to see what interactive programs we have in place for the deployed spouses group. I want to see if any more needs to be added or if others have ideas on what else we can do for the families with a member that is currently deployed. Enough thinking out loud, note to self...bring notebook to meeting today so you can jot things down.

Went to the Bicester garden center, yes again. I went alone this time and I'm not afraid to admit that I'm seriously addicted to that place! Just walking around that place is so relaxing to me. And trust me, I walked around for over 2½ hours, just looking at things. I didn't go into the health foods store and that's one place I now regret not going into. I should have gone there instead of the shoe store, LOL! Read below about my shoe store experience.

Here's something that kind of peeved me (made me feel as if I was back in the US) I walked into the shoe store that is this shopping center, must have picked up and handled 20 or more different pairs of shoes and not one single sales person ever looked at me, approached me, or even bothered to greeted me with a simple "hello" or "can I help you with anything?". These women were so engrossed in their personal conversation (they were being rather catty about another employee) that they never bothered to greet me or the women who came into the store right after I did. I know that won't be going back in there again, I'll stick with shopping at the Clarks shoe stores- they know how to greet their customers and ask if they need help with something.

Now other than the shoe store that has poor customer relations, I was in 2 different clothing stores and was promptly greeted, one lady helped with an exchange that I had and was ever so pleasant to work with. Lots of great sales going on out here at this shopping center, and 99% of the shops (minus a shoe store) would love to have your business!

If you want a really great shopping experience go to the Laura Ashely store! You will see tons of great merchandise (most of which is on sale-what a bonus!), you will find very knowledgeable and helpful sales staff and an over all pleasant shopping atmosphere. Here's another bonus- it smells good in there too!

Now to get ready for the luncheon...I hope to have a fun time!