Shopping the old way

Now I must admit I do like to Christmas shop early and if budget allows before turkey day. And I do a lot of shopping online. But today i decided to shop the old way. I got out and braved the 40 mph winds to shop. I should of stayed in bed or even better done it online. The depressing thing about today is this is what happened last week when I went shopping the old way (less the winds). It was a bust! What has happened to stores. I wanted to boost wall street today, prove to them that consumers live and spend. But to do this stores need to get on the stick. Maybe by providing (gasp) customer service or making a coupon or an in store sale that you can understand. Like today had a coupon for a store that will remain nameless (The Avenue) the coupon said 40% off anything including items on sale. So I find a blouse for my mean mudder & I walk over to the cash register. There stands a 16 yr old boy who rings it up and says you can't use the coupon on this. Why I ask. Because he says it a red star sale item which is different from a sale item. Now I am getting ready to argue with him but then I remembered the last time I argued logic with a 16 yr old. I must admit I surrendered and paid. He was not worth the 5 to 10 yr stretch for kicking his ass.
Now for the second store. I enter hopeful and coupon less so no arguing. I have every one's wish list in my hand. I spend 1 hour in the store and exit empty handed. They had nothing but I did find a few things on my own wish list and couldn't buy them. Damn! Now I know that to some people leaving a store after an hour empty handed is not unusual. But for me it is. See I learned how to shop from my mean mudder. She's taught how to invade, conquer, and pull out (maybe she should talk to Bush). I like to call this style of shopping commando shopping. I commando shop when I shop alone. I kinda felt like the USA in Iraq I went looking for weapons of mass destruction and found nothing. So now I feel defeated.
I guess I will probably shop the new way online and in my underwear.