On my way home from the Container Store on Friday I happened to take the route that took me past three furniture stores off Midway and LBJ. Is it just the Dallas area or is it the same in all retail/discount furniture stores – you walk in and feel like you are about the be clubbed in the head and drug by your hair to the furniture that the salesperson thinks you should buy? It felt like that to me on Friday. I was only looking and had no intention of buying right then, but “I’m just looking” was not enough to satisfy the blood lusting salespeople – they keep talking to you as if you have said nothing (actually, that might have worked better… just saying nothing… walk in and keep walking…. I might have to try that). I restrained myself from coming right out and saying “go away Linda” or “go play in the traffic Linda” (one of them was named Linda… she was at the first store I went to… hard to shake off but the persistent old bird figured out the hint eventually).

The background was filled with the noises of bad elevator music and in one location, loud salesmen doing their traveling medicine show pitch. If I had talked to any of them at all they would have taken that as their invitation to “help me” (or is it “sell me”) and I did not care for their help. Telling them what I was looking for would have done the same thing. They would have latched on and not allowed me to shop in peace.

I managed to see some nice couches and sectionals, and some really bad ones. In one of the nicer stores I sat down on one and it was so soft I just sank into it. Not would I would expect from a higher end store. At the cheaper of the three, I plopped down on a couch there and am sure I felt one if the boards in the frame. Now that is cheap.

I managed to avoid all the salespeople successfully, but I now want to go back and try not saying anything at all and see what they do. Not to mention, see if anything new has made its way to the clearance room. Hehehehe. Fun.