Only ninja shoppers need apply

July 15, 2010  |  by Jackie Bunnell

The downtown area of our city is, for the most part, a relatively civilized and quaint oasis of specialty retailers. One day a year, however, a special sort of mayhem breaks loose. It’s the annual Sidewalk Sale.

People come from throughout the region for this event and every local citizen who might otherwise be minding his/her own business, on the other side of town, joins in. Then, there are those of us who work downtown and have the special challenge of trying to go about our routine daily business in the midst of all this fiscal partying.

Every year I tell myself: “Be brave! Go out there! Great deals are to be found!”

I just returned from my annual attempt – I didn’t last more than 10 minutes. I love a deal as much as the next person but I must have missed the spring training session held earlier in the year, down in Florida. I also forgot to take my face mask, knee pads and steel-toed shoes. It’s quite obvious I would not make the cut as a Ninja Shopper.

I often think of the store managers and staff on this special day. They always do an impressive job of making their designated piece of sidewalk as accommodating as possible. They mysteriously manage to maintain a “game face” despite the fact that it usually means a 16-hour marathon on one of the hottest days of the year.

But, I particularly enjoy visiting their stores the next day. There’s a sense of triumph among the staff but also one of welcome relief. The normal mode of shopping and shopkeeping can resume – customers casually perusing, a bit of jazz playing in the background, the store cat sunning in the front window, coupled with that easy, familiar banter amongst the staff and clientele.

That’s the type of shopping I prefer. And – there might even be a leftover bargain or two that survived the previous day’s Ninja raid. If not, it’s still nice to stop in to see how my favorite shopkeepers held up. That’s one of the special things about specialty retail.