Standstill

P had to go to a conference today, and got up much earlier than usual. The cats were delighted, and promptly demanded food and attention, so my day started early as well.

After breakfast, I drove into the city for some errands (the bus drivers were on strike, so I needed my own car). I had to go to my mother’s bank, and also went shopping for some bits and pieces. This is in the last remaining department store in Wiesbaden (we used to have four of them, then two, and now the other one is closing as well). This last one is also struggling to remain popular, but I wasn’t impressed by the general approach. Their employees were moving whole departments around in there, and I didn’t find anything where it used to be. I wasn’t the only customer asking for directions, and finding underwear where they were looking for knitting wool, or jeans instead of towels.

The search wasn’t made easier by the fact that every second escalator had been closed down. Not because they are defective, as this sign explains, but because „we all together“ (Gemeinsam) are saving energy here. So, dear customers, please walk to a different escalator, or lift, or even better: use the stairs.

That’s not what the sign suggested, but it’s what I did. I used the stairs and walked out of the shop, without having found what I had come for. No wonder people are ordering all kinds of stuff online nowadays.