I went with my daughter to buy a birthday gift for her friend. Before that, we stopped by the Salvation Army on St. Clair to give away some things.
There were people crowding the donation bin. Two people started jostling over a toy ukulele. “Give me that, that’s mine!” The older lady yanked the ukulele from the hands of a younger man.
It was getting heated. Curse words were exchanged. I hustled my little kid along to the toy store a few stores down. There were people crowding in there too. There was jostling too. But it was different.
We were all trying to get the smartest gifts. We all ended up crowding by the word game section. Scrabble evolved.
There was no physical jostling. No grabbing out of the other’s hands. No “move it!” It was polite. A little passive-aggressive maybe, but we all ended up getting the exact gift we exactly wanted for just over $30.
This little toy store is a booming business on St. Clair and it will likely get even more business as places like Toys “R” Us at the Dufferin Mall close down.
And the Salvation Army will also likely get more business as people lose their jobs, get more desperate, and start fighting over a toy ukulele someone gave away.
