Shopping can be stressful when shoppers are many and parking spaces and cashiers are few. Going to the market the day before Thanksgiving or going to the store the day after Christmas can mean subjecting one’s self to uglier sides of the human personality. At a Walmart store a couple of years ago, an employee was trampled to death by the mob which rushed in as soon as the doors opened. Such extremes are rare, thank goodness, but virtually every time I shop, I do see a violation of the rules of common sense and courtesy.

I would like to offer a list of rules of shopping etiquette to help make shopping a pleasant experience for customers and businesses alike. The first eight rules apply to customers, and the next four apply to businesses.

1. When looking for a parking space, don’t hold up traffic while waiting for someone else to pull out. Most parking garages have multiple levels for parking that have plenty of space even on the busiest of shopping days. These levels are connected with bridges and elevators so it is not a physical hardship.

2. While shopping, try to avoid looking at the same item or area that someone else is looking at until they are done. I sometimes see shoppers look at items just because they see someone else looking at it.

3. When you have a shopping cart, park it in such a way as to not block the aisle. Sometimes I park my cart very considerately, only to have someone else come and park their cart in the area which I had left clear. I then end up having to move when someone else comes along.

4. Do not expect people with more items than you to let you cut in front of them in line just because you have a few items. Go to the express line or just wait your turn.

5. Where there is open but limited seating such as at a food court, do not sit to reserve a table while someone else in your party goes to get the food. Someone who already has a tray of food in their hands should be able to sit and eat at the table while you are only waiting for your food.

6. Remember that your time at the cashier’s is not social hour. Too often I have seen customers and cashiers engage in unnecessarily long conversations. Discussing with the cashier at length how the color of the blouse looks on you or whether it can be work for a formal party is not appropriate when others are waiting in line.

7. Except when it can be done promptly, customers should not expect to leave a line and come back to the same place by asking someone to save their spot. Leaving means going to the end of the line upon return.

8. Stores are not playgrounds for kids. Some hyperactivity is to be expected, but a tag game in and out of aisles with loud yelling and laughter is not. When a customer feels they have gotten in the way of a child, it is the child who is in the way.

9. With the exception of supermarkets, cashiers should be instructed to have customers form only one line if there is more than one cashier open. They also need to continually reinforce this between sales because customers WILL try to form a second line as it gets them to the front of a line.

10. Cashiers must not wait till their line grows very long before asking for a second cashier to open. If there is only one person waiting, and the current sale is dragging, then that is time the cashier should request help from a second cashier. It is the first person who has been waiting a long time for assistance and the customer at the end of the line.

11. Businesses need to respect their customers’ space. One store I visited had 3-4 salespeople continually ask me if I needed help. While I told them that I would let them know when I did, they did not refrain from continually checking on me to see if that time had come. I eventually just left that store.

12. Businesses must be careful with the music they choose to play in stores and the volume at which they play it. Especially offensive are some of the teen-age clothing stores that play especially bad hip-hop music almost as loud as you would expect to find at a party. Even if this were to bring in business, which I doubt, it contributes to the numbing of a customer’s aesthetic sense. Our country is on such a campaign to save our bodies from the harms of smoking, we can’t we do the same for our ears from bad music? Of course the ultimate offense was when I saw a young girl walk into a store with her own music player, having the volume turned on high enough so that the rest of shoppers in her vicinity could also “enjoy” the “music.”

Let us put the courteous and thoughtful treatment of others at a premium so that shopping can be both an efficient and enjoyable experience for all of us.

Ani Bogosian has been a Glendale resident and shopper for over twenty years, meeting the all the material needs of a growing family.

None of these questions were answered Wednesday when the Glendale Planning Commission approved a use variance to allow 4 live/work artist units in a new 4-story, 36-unit affordable housing project at 331 and 327 Salem Street. The proposed design will be eligible for state tax credits under SB 1818, include Silver LEED Certification, and provide 57 parking spaces (instead of the 81 that would normally be required under city code).

Consultant Rodney Khan gave the presentation, focusing on the city’s goal of increasing affordable housing and council’s stated goals of creating an arts district and encouraging live/work developments. Khan stressed that the site is only one block away from the Downtown Specific Plan area, where live/work units are already encouraged. Eligibility for the density bonus was determined at a Zoning Administrator’s hearing just that morning.

The lack of a city policy on live/work units had commissioners leaning toward postponement until after the Housing Authority/City Council joint meeting on the subject March 16. But when Planning Director Hassan Haghani and Khan both mentioned the project was on a tight deadline to apply for state tax credits, and the matter would be appealed directly to city council, commissioners decided to approve the project with recommendations.

The project is eligible for the state’s “density bonus” under SB 1818, a law that rewards affordable and low-income housing developments. Coincidentally, Paul Krekorian’s defeat of a Valley Village apartment project and its SB 1818 claims was featured Wednesday in CurbedLA.

Parking was a concern for some commissioners and several speakers who represented area property owners. The fact that live/work units might require special parking accommodations for deliveries, hours of business, clients, art showings, etc., was raised but not resolved.

Eric Yesayan commented, “Regardless of how ‘green’ this project is, we are still losing public parking.” Yesayan, Chang Lee, and Hank Sheets all had strong concerns about parking, while commission chair William Kane said, “I’m satisfied in terms of testimony that it is parking neutral.” Parking ended up being a secondary issue, as commissioners decided to approve the project instead of postpone it based on the state tax credit application deadline.

Just two short blocks from the Galleria, Office Depot at the corner of Pacific and Broadway was almost empty. Actually, the store itself is set back from the corner. Its large, single-level parking lot (from a different, less congested era) is adjacent to the intersection. I drove in easily, parked close to the entrance, and walked straight up to the cash register (no line!) to take care of a last-minute exchange.

Grocery store parking lots and driveways were heavily congested, with cars waiting for exiting shoppers to load their trunks and vacate a space. Inside, though, plenty of Christmas merchandise and foodstuffs were still on the shelves.

Christmas day, the LA Times front page report said that in Dongguan, China, 1,800 toy factories have shut down during the past year. Ten million Chinese workers have lost jobs as factories producing toys and other export items have gone out of business. KB Toys won’t be around next year to place any orders at all. This is certainly bad for China, and the many migrant workers who found jobs and better wages during better times in Dongguan.

At Office Depot, all the digital cameras on sale during Black Friday were still available – orders for electronics will likely be much lighter in the months to come. Demand for paper clips and other sundry office products is bound to fall also as the economy contracts. Office Depot announced earlier this month that it would close 112 stores and 6 distribution facilities. Luckily the Glendale store is not on the list: I like its helpful staff, convenient stand-alone location, and the spacious parking lot.

What do people actually need during the holiday season? Parking lots in this area indicate that food and clothing top the list. The LA Times report says that celebrations in China feature practical gifts:

The Chinese government has promised to take measures to spur domestic consumer spending, with the hope that it will help pick up the slack. But Chinese consumers are unlikely to bail out the beleaguered toy industry.

Although many Chinese have come to love Christmas, decorating trees and windows, piping the ubiquitous carols into elevators and stores, one thing they don’t do is shop. The big consumer holiday here is the lunar New Year — and parents buy clothing and shoes for their children, not toys.

“All these toys we make are for the foreign children,” said 40-year-old Long Sunjun, who runs a small shop near the closed Smart Union factory. She says that even the children of the toy factory workers seldom were given toys other than squirt guns or balls.

“Chinese kids can make their own toys. Besides, they should be studying, not playing with toys.”

Readers: add your pithy conclusion below!