Surviving the Candle Sale

Almost two weeks ago, Bath and Body Works had a big candle sale. For $9.95 for a 3 wick candle, that was a 60% discount (I did the math) and it was a pretty good deal. I had initially planned on doing the candle sale online or worst case scenario, go to the Bath and Body Works that's 20 minutes away from my house. That didn't work out. A guy friend wanted to go to the mall to pick out a gift for his dad at the mall, so off to the mall 45 minutes away.

When we got to the mall, it wasn't so much a sea of people but a sea of Bath and Body Works bags when we just entered the mall. But as I got closer to Bath and Body Works, the sea of those bags was even more concentrated. People with carrying 3 or 4 large bags of candles. I knew there was some sort of limit on how many candles you could get in one trip but I think that people were making multiple trips to the store to get around the limit. It was difficult enough alone getting into the store but even harder to move around when you are inside. The employees looked like they had a rock solid plan but were having issues trying to keep everything stocked. The biggest gripe was other customers. Most had to stand in one spot and smell every candle. Didn't matter if it was all the same scent, every candle had to be smelled. Are you looking for the strongest smelling one of the Evergreen candle? They are all equally strong smelling, just put one in your cart. Can't decide on which vanilla to get? Just pick one, this isn't neurosurgery or ending hunger in the US and move along. My biggest thing was I knew how many candles I was getting and the scents I wanted but I don't know why so many people didn't respond to an excuse me. A louder excuse me didn't seem to working but when a few other customers realized I was trying to either get through to get something they looked surprised and asked if I was standing there for very long. My response was it took you both 10 minutes and 4 loud excuse mes before you bothered to notice? This is why I like to avoid malls during Christmas and large crowds period. It's hard enough in normal circumstances for people to actually respond to an excuse me but sheesh.

I did like how the employees had a plan at the cash registers and the line to check out. They kept the line moving and kept the customers in line from acting foolish. There were a couple people that thried to get out of line to get a few more things and still had their place in line but there we so many employees that there dealing with the line before anyone even got to the register, it was impossible to do. Next candle day sale, I am doing it online.