Weigh anchor!

2013

2015

Walking along the crowded sidewalk was actually a welcomed experience. Maybe it was the warm December day two days before Christmas, maybe the rainy weather sending people to the covered walkway, or maybe the now open grocery store. For whatever reason, it was nice to see the Odenton Shopping Center busy with shoppers.

Odenton Shopping Center once had a grocery store and department store to anchor either end. Two years ago we wrote about the history of the shopping center and the endearing meaning it has had to the community in the last fifty years, Anchors aweigh!  The center had been on the decline since the department store closed decades ago and the grocery store closed in 2011. On December 14, 2015, Giant Food opened in the empty grocery store space. Once again bringing a major anchor to the shopping center.

Since the Giant opened, the parking lot, throughout the center, has been full. It’s only been a week but the other businesses should be seeing some residual effect. With all of the development taking place around Odenton, it is certainly pleasant to see the center full of people and once again a vibrant part of the community.

Pssssst…Need some speakers?

 

Some idioms you can live by-Can’t judge a book by its cover. Every cloud has a silver lining.  Do unto others as you would them do to you. Words to live by. With our primal drive to always get the best price on absolutely anything, probably the most important during the Christmas shopping season is-Too good to be true.

We are always looking for the better deal. Especially this time of year when our gift giving budgets are stretched and maxed. If it’s cheaper somewhere else we’ll drive half away across the State to save a few dollars. That’s what makes us particularly susceptible to con men and scam artists. The good ones prey on our sensibilities and that feeling that we’re getting over on someone. Willingly acquiescing to our negotiating prowess to make us feel like we won. When in reality they won big. Oh the elation we feel when the story is told of how we adeptly bartered with some rube until we got the item for almost nothing.

This is why people buy used luxury cars for less than half of blue book, only to later find out that the car was stolen and re-titled. Or why people buy jewelry from that guy on the street or stereo equipment from unmarked vans. It is also why we are so quick to give up personal information and send money to email and phone solicitors.

It’s like when the good you and evil you are on opposite shoulders, except now one is sensibility and the other is a dollar sign. You know it walks like a duck and even sounds like a duck but oh my goodness what a price!  You actually pause and think, “This can’t be right”, but you make the deal anyway.

Sometimes the police don’t come and take the Mercedes or the Klipsch speakers. Sometimes a Nigerian prince really does need your help. Most times, listen to the smart you.

If it’s too good to be true…close your wallet.