Shopping trip
On the first shopping trip, I took my teenage sister out shopping at a convenience store in our neighborhood. A small business that does not take up a lot of space, the store is an excellent place to shop for everyday items such as groceries, confectionery, toiletries, soft drinks, non-prescribed drugs, and snack food. We went to the store because my mother had asked to accompany my younger sister to the store since she needed to pick a few items for her school trip that was coming up in two days. As we were driving towards the shop, I was surprised to notice that my teenage sister did not mind the trip to a convince store. Initially, I expected her to protest shopping at a convenience store. Still, she seemed unbothered with the idea and correctly understood what she was going to get at the store and looked forward to the idea of conveniently picking out items she needs without walking around for too long and taking long queues. One we arrived at the store, using her short shopping list, I observed as my sister picked out the products she needed and seemed to focus on a particular category of snacks food, confectionery, and toiletries. I once noticed her standing at the magazine aisle, going through the titles, but in the end, she did not put the magazine in her cart. She also seemed to linger over some makeup items at the shelf but did not pay much attention to any particular one. I was actually surprised at her lack of interest given that she particularly love make –up as a teenage girl. Upon inquiring, she told me she would never buy makeup at a convince store because nobody uses this type of makeup product anymore. Our trip did not last more than 20 minutes even though we were not in a rush; the prices were a little higher, but we did not mind given the convenience of quick shopping, we did not care. As soon as I paid for the items at the counter, we were already on our way back home.
Now that my sister had the few items she needed for the trip from the convenience store, she also needed to pick some new cloth items. For this particular shopping trip, we had to drive several kilometers to the mall. We visited a popular clothing store in which my sister instead has excellent bargains and the best accessories. Given that she needed summer wear, as soon as we arrived at the store, my sister immediately rushed towards the summer wear aisle, looking through shorts, dresses, skirts, and crop tops. There were accessories such as bags, sunglasses, hats, and jewelry that seemed to impress her highly. At this store, she seemed to know what she wanted and only asked for my opinion on whether to take a smaller or bigger size of a dress she was fitting. As I waited for her to pick the ten items she had listed on her shopping list, I observed her sense of style, the need to select items on the trend regardless of the price, and the obsession with designer labels. Halfway through her shopping, she attempted to convenience to let her buy two items that were clearly out of budget simply because she had seen a similar piece trending online. However, I had been instructed by my mother to stick to the budget. She unwillingly put the items back on the shelf. After almost two hours, I finally paid for the things my sister had picked that mostly consisted of bold colors of shorts, branded tops, sunglasses, pink lip gloss, and two flowery dresses. The prices were on the higher end, given the store’s popularity, but my sister seemed to believe that they have the best bargains. On our drive home, I was exhausted from all the shopping, but my teenage sister was very excited and happy.