I must remind myself never to get involved in the demented queues of a charity shop when they are selling cameras. I thought going there perhaps an hour before it opened would be reasonable enough, but  my heart sank when I saw the large line that had formed. Then there were the two men who seemed to think it was perfectly acceptable to skip ahead and wait at the front of the line. They were soon put in their place by the rabid amateur photographers that  had spent hours before, shivering and staring through the glass display.

The object of desire:

Info

I took a particular dislike to a girl that was in front of me, because she didn’t seem to have anything better to do than to stare at me intermittently over the hour that we were waiting. This girl ultimately proved to be my downfall.

Once we got inside the shop the first few people started arguing over who exactly was entitled to be first served. This went on for about fifteen minutes as the queue outside got longer and longer. Once someone blew their top and stormed out, then the real SHIT began.

The first two people decided to buy the majority of the stock leaving the dregs to the rest of us. As the man at the till said, it was policy that a person was allowed to buy three things each. I was slowly beginning to realise that I had wasted my time.

Eventually it was the staring girl’s turn and she didn’t seem to want any camera in particular, she was just buying one for the sake of it. I saw her pick up the one I wanted and I slowly begin to grit my teeth. She stared at it for a few minutes with a perplexed look on her face and bought it, along with another camera she randomly picked up. That was when I thought FUCK THIS!!. From her actions I could easily discern she did not have a clue about what she was buying. I walked out before the urge to kill could overwhelm me.

I guess I got a bit too caught up in the shenanigans. I had been ogling that camera for two weeks and was amazed at how cheap it was. What a horrid crushing feeling it was when someone else took it. I consoled myself with the fact that she probably didn’t know that the camera took 120mm film. Not the end of the world, but slightly less available than 35mm. HA.

I cooled down once I came home and got back to my senses. It’s very easy to see how people can get injured in those long queues that form outside of massive sales or when flat screen tellys are being sold for a euro in Harvey Norman’s. The collective insanity that descends upon a group of people all grabbing for the same thing is one of the fascinating aspects of  mob psychology.

I guess in the end, it’s just a fucking camera. Let’s just put it down to temporary insanity. I think I will be sticking to ebay from now on, its fairer and I don’t have to put up with people staring at me for no particular reason.