Shopocalypse Now

Well.  Frankly this picture has nothing to do with the events of the day but it's an inspiring one, isn't it?

Boxing Day isn't an official holiday here in Maine as it is over the border in Canada.  I remember reading about it in my very first Sherlock Holmes book, back when I was in Fourth grade or so.

As I write, with more than an hour 'till closing I'm sure the Orchard is humming - perhaps not as crazed at at the peak of the day starting around Noon, but probably still going strong.

After the enforced quietude (read "hangover recovery") of Christmas Day and having a late dinner with my colleague M it made sense to phone over this morning and ask if help was needed.

The short answer was "get out here and we'll figure out for how long later in the day".  You can't argue with that.

So saying I took my courage in hand and headed over in Mrs. Beadle - who simply started right up.

Getting logged in and powered up was the work of a moment.  After that it was an amazing blur of people and problem solving.

This is the best part of working at the Orchard.  You see anyone crazy enough to be shopping on Boxing Day is also willing to accept that such shopping is going to be, in a word, crazy.  You'd have to be in order to put up with the lack of parking, crowds and increasingly empty shelves.  

So people (usually) don't go crazy.  They just put their heads down and bull their way through.  

And that is what makes it so much fun.  You get to help people solve problems and work through to a better place.  We really are changing lives.

Or at last we're making a reputation for maintaining - at least, where the public can see us - a sense of calm, of politesse, of sang froid, of listening to our customers and making their lives better.

I had at least three sets of German customers.  One French.

No Cherokee.

So - even though we were lost in a sea of demanding humanity we didn't lose our basic humanity in the face of such overwhelming odds.  People were pretty chill - considering.

I'm going in tomorrow afternoon, Saturday - in the thick of the day.  I am intensely curious to see what happens next.