A Country Mouse Goes to the City: K-Mart Discovery

The very first day we arrived, as we were trying to make our way to our apartment building, I saw a K-Mart that was near our address. I knew before I came that I would have to give up Wal-Mart, but, hey, we don't have a local K-Mart, so I could shop at K-Mart, right? (You know, like the rule when you are out of town that you can't eat at any restaurant that you have at home.)

Last week, as I was out exploring, I just came upon the K-Mart and decided to drop in. It had three floors, and I had a bit of difficulty finding what was on my list. So, basically, I just wandered around and checked it out. On the bottom floor, there was a check-out area that led out into a brightly-lit mall area with some other stores that looked interesting. There were no check-outs on the middle floor, and maybe 20 check-outs on the first floor.

Since that day, whenever I "believe" I'm in the area, I look for K-Mart but haven't seen it again. So today, since I still have that list, I look up the address. I head out of our building and start down the block and realize that this can't be the right way, because the numbers are going down rather than up. I turn around and start the other way, and now, I realize why I haven't been able to find K-Mart again -- it's because I am totally turned around on its location.

Now that I'm headed in the right way, I find it with no problem. I immediately head down the escalators to the bottom floor, as this is where all the home goods, health and beauty, and groceries are located. Armed with my shopping cart, I load up everything on my list plus a few extra treats. I decide I will just check out down on the bottom floor and explore that mall on the way home. Thankfully, before I check out, I push my basket up to the exit and ask the guard where does this exit lead to. He kind of looks at me, and at the same time, I'm looking out into the "mall" and realize that it is the subway. So I say, is that the subway? And he says, yes, where do you want to go. I said, I better go upstairs because I need to be on 34th Street. So he tells me, since I have a shopping cart, to take the elevator up.

Well, I had seen the elevator back in the hardware area, so off I go. There is an older gentleman and a young woman (maybe his granddaughter) also waiting for the elevator. They don't speak English well, and they are as confused by the buttons as I am. So the man is trying to ask me, which floor we should go to to check out, and I just don't know. So he pushes every button. There is a "C", a "B", an "I", and a "G". We first go down to "C", which is the cellar -- why didn't I remember that. I've got to make it a point to remember that C is cellar. The cellar is the employee floor so an employee gets on and back we go to "B", which is the basement or what I thought was the bottom floor. Next we go to "I", which is the intermediate floor -- makes perfect sense, right.. And then finally to the top floor, which is "G" or ground.

So, when will this country mouse ever learn what the elevator buttons stand for? I am so used to entering an elevator on floor 1, that it never occurred to me that G was 1. Duh! It also never occurred to this country mouse that there would be an entrance to K-Mart down in the subway. I've never noticed this on any of the TV shows I watch! And I really must have seemed like a country bumpkin mouse to that guard.

NOTE: I have no pictures of K-Mart -- I know you are disappointed -- but I am sharing others with you.