Sharing space when shopping
I decided to do a thrift store crawl today with Sally Ann having 50% off on books. I buy books from library and classroom library wish lists to donate to my sons' elementary school.
I went to a location I hadn't been to before. They had a small children's book section two shelves wide that was a distance from the adult books. The selection didn't look too exceptional. Racks of clothing were across from it.
When I got there, there was a woman with a stroller looking at the books and blocking most of both shelves. I had access to about the first foot of the one bookshelf. I had a look at the books I could access for about four minutes and chose a few. Then I backed up slightly and hoped that she'd soon move toward me so we could switch sides. And I waited... three minutes passed, and she moved into the space I had vacated, but now had both shelves completely blocked with her body and the stroller. There was no way to access either shelf without having to go over the six-month-old baby, even if I did walk around an entire clothing rack to the other side. I waited another couple of minutes, hoping she'd finish looking, or be polite and make some room. Nope.
I went to the regular book section for a few minutes and looked around, reasoning that since she was on the last twelve inches of the shelf that she'd be done soon. After a few minutes, I returned to the kids' books. She had moved back to her original position, and there was again that foot of space beside her that I'd already looked at. We weren't even looking at the same types of books. I moved a bit closer and craned my neck to see the other books. She wouldn't take the hint, but was making annoyed noises.
"Maybe we could switch sides, and the stroller could be moved over to the other side so we can both see the books?" I suggested as I moved past her and into position next to the stroller blocking the shelves.
She huffed and puffed in annoyance and moved the stroller. "Or, you could walk all the way around the rack and go around!" she muttered.
"Thanks," I said, unwilling to get into it with her. I spent a few minutes looking at the books, and then made my few purchases.
I don't get this. Most people make room when others are interested in looking at a shelf -- I do! I was at a different thrift store later in the afternoon, heard a woman approaching behind me when I was looking at a shelf of kids' books, and realized that I had immediately and automatically moved over and ensured that my cart was out of the way. "Thanks!" she said, "we can both look!" And it's not even that I don't understand what it's like to have a baby in a stroller! I have two kids!