One of my favorite places

Today my kids and I went down to my parent's house so that I could help my dad close his swimming pool for the season. That was the task for the afternoon, though. It is quite depressing to close the pool because that means summer, my favorite season, is coming to an end.

In the morning, we all went here. This place is huge. Four times a year (usually March, May, September and November) this internet company opens the doors of its warehouse to the general public. Since this company is located in Peabody, Massachusetts, it's not too far away from me. They have shelves and shelves of books, plus bargain and discount tables full of wonderful stuff. In addition to the books, you can find t-shirts, neckties, framed art, cds, cassette tapes, dvds, video cassettes, toys and much more. They have a tv/video area for the little kids who are too small to walk around the warehouse.

The only bummer is that there are no shopping carts to use. So it doesn't take long for your load to become heavy. They do have lots of empty boxes, though, which anyone can use. The first time I went I had no plan and spent a fortune. Now that I'm a veteran of many such sales, I go to their website a few days before and plan out what I want and where it is before I go, so I can adhere to (more of) a budget and save time looking because items are not kept in order by author or title. Usually I find a few interesting titles just walking around that weren't on my list. Today was no different.

These sales usually run from 7 AM to 4 PM. You should see the number of people who line up to get in the door promptly at 7:00 to be the first to look thru the bargain tables. Surprisingly, I've seen tour buses from all over the eastern US come to these sales. I think the farthest was from Ohio or possibly Michigan, but I don't remember.

I've added a search link box to the right so that anyone can go back there after this post has been archived.