Domestic Geek

I love finding new scrapbooking stores . . . usually. I found one today that I wish I hadn't. It was awful. First, there was absolutely no parking out front. When I went inside, things were a mess and haphazardly strewn about. Nothing was categorized in any sort of order. The space was tiny and cramped. There was no clear division between the cropping area and the sales floor. The selection totally sucked. The owner was in the back hallway yelling at someone on the phone. There were all these little water fountains, fish bowls, even a bowl with a huge frog in it (too small for the poor frog, I might add), setting about. I was afraid of knocking them over. If the owner was trying to achieve some sort of feng shui, it wasn't working. After she gets off the phone, she informs me that there is a "bargain basement." It was literally a musty, smelly basement at the foot of the crickety old stairs. All the sale stuff was just thrown in boxes on the floor and some kids' artwork was hanging by threads all over the place. It was soooooo icky and creepy. So, I did grab a couple of things and went to pay -- no cash register. She writes out receipts by hand and adds them up on an adding machine with no tape in it. Things were so cramped that even she was knocking stuff down. It was so totally unprofessional. I don't know how long she's been in business, but I doubt very much that she'll still be open a year from now.