Shopping the easy way

I said I was going to blog about J's day shopping when I was feeling better.

It was President's Day and he and I had plans to shop at the mall while Y was there running around with her friends. He had a list of the stores he wanted to go into and the clothes he wanted from each one. He also decided where we were going to eat.

I blogged earlier about how he reacts to the various noise at the mall, and to the music played in the stores and restaurants. He can handle the constant din of voices in the mall and the loud roar in the food court - much better that me I must say - but he can't handle the music played in stores or the roar of voices in restaurants. It's because the noise in the mall and food court bugs him a little bit but not as much because it's all over the place and spreads out and travels. The noise - and music - in the restaurants and stores is in one small enclosed spot and he doesn't like it.

It's because of this that I bring ear plugs for him because some of the stores he loves to go into plays very loud music. Like I mentioned in the earlier post, he'll usually go in and out of the store several times looking at stuff he wants and then getting away from the loud music. It "hurts"him, as he's told me. It makes his body and head pound inside and he didn't like it. The ear plugs make this tolerable for him and he's able to shop.

So we went to the mall with the list of stores and clothes to buy in hand.

First stop: PacSun where he got a real cool striped hoodie.
Second stop: Zumiez where he got three different t-shirts.
Third Stop: Sears where he got two pairs of jeans.

We got all this done in under an hour. Talk about quick shopping! He knew exactly what he wanted and didn't want to look around other stores when we were done. Now, I like to shop and look around, but I didn't mind one bit the in and out shopping that we did. That's how J is and that's fine with me. It's not as easy when all three of us are shopping. We always have a list of stores to go into and what we're looking for, but Y and I have a tendency to want to look in all these other shops too. Sometimes J is okay with it if he hasn't begun having sensory overload yet, but most times he's flat-out against it and we have to plan another trip.

He did what I knew he would do - go in and out of PacSun and Zumiez several times while finding what he wanted. The sales people in PacSun kind of looked at him funny for this but didn't say anything. Of course they were happy when I bought something.

The people over at Zumiez were great. We're in there enough since both my kids shop there that they know our faces. They also know J is autistic. I don't know how since none of us have said anything, but they know. Whenever J has to step out of the store, if he's looking at a shirt or something, one of the sales people will bring the item to the register and hold it there until J comes back in. And there's one salesman who's fantastic with J. He helps J out all the time if he's working. All the other people do and are great but this one in particular just knows and has helped J out when the music gets to be too much. It makes our time in Zumiez go so smoothly, and we love shopping there.

After that we went to the food court and had Subway sandwiches. A short time later we met up with Y and her friends and I brought everybody home.

It was a good day and we got a lot done. And J was very happy with the clothes he got.