Reasons for Living #2

People said we’d for sure miss our favorite American foods and stuff while we were here, but so far I haven’t noticed that as much as the part where I miss places.  I was wandering around the other day looking for black shoes and thinking about the Minneapolisthriftandconsignmentstores-shaped hole in my heart.  I hadn’t seen any consignment stores and the only charity shop I had seen was a Salvos (Salvation Army) and it just didn’t cut the cheese/have black shoes in my size.  At the time, google couldn’t tell me where to go because I didn’t have THE phone on me so I was doing things the old-fashioned way, like wandering around aimlessly.  Naturally, I eventually ended up at that Target store downtown and I asked a local-looking girl there if there was much along the lines of thrift/second-hand or consignment shops in Melbourne.  She looked at me like I was from outer space and then hesitantly directed me to the same Salvos store I had already seen.  Since this was the second time I had gotten this kind of reaction when using all the words I could think of to ask about thrift or consignment stores, I figured Melbourne hadn’t yet discovered the wonderful world of consignment.  Obviously, right?  At that point I knew it was probably my destiny to open a really great one here in Melbourne.  I was shoulders-deep in the business planning process before I got back to the library only to discover that there are a TON of consignment shops all over the Melbourne region.  It must have been my thick Minnesotan accent that caused the confusion.  I was disappointed because we had lost another purpose in life, but mainly relieved that I had been released of the burden of bringing a whole new retail industry to Melbourne.  Plus, now we have time to focus on our other business ideas.  Other business ideas like smuggling Trix into the country.  Let us know if you want in.  Anyway, I found black shoes at the outlet mall and have yet to check out the consignment competition in Melbourne.