Awww, Nuts

As I mentioned earlier, I braved the crowds and the elements and went to The Mall on Saturday morning to finish my Christmas shopping.  I hadn't been there since last Christmas, so I was a bit disoriented and ended up parking on the opposite of The Mall from where I needed to go.  Not a problem.  I had on my tennis shoes and was feeling energetic.  As soon as I entered the main part of The Mall, I saw row after row of kiosks selling everything from soup to nuts, literally.  I passed by the nut kiosk and a young foreign woman, possibly Bosnian, was weilding a pair of tongs, picking up nuts from a tray and was asking everyone that passed by if they would like one (in broken English).  I politely said "No, thank you." and went on my way to one of the bookstores.  I left that bookstore, and then travelled to the opposite end of the mall to another bookstore, and had to pass by the nut kiosk again.  Once again, the young woman held those tongs out in front of my face and asked if I wanted a nut.  Once again, I said "No, thank you."  I hoofed it down to the other bookstore, and came back down mall, ready to head to the car, when I had to pass by the nut kiosk a third time.  Yes, you guessed it.  The eager young woman was holding another nut in the tongs, trying to get me to take it.  I wasn't as polite this time, and just said "No" and walked on.  Before the nut kiosk was out of view, I turned back around and looked at their prices. They were pretty steep, by Planters canned nut standards.  I wanted to go back and tell the young woman "You know something?  I read somewhere that American Airlines left off one olive from the salads in the meals they used to serve on the planes, and it saved the company tens of thousands of dollars a year.  Maybe if you all didn't give every person in the mall a nut, you could drop your prices."  But I didn't.  I just walked onto the car, shaking my head. At least they didn't grab me at the mall like they did last year at the Dead Sea salt kiosk.