I will miss you, Target

Our Target is finally closing. All Targets in Canada are closing. The last time I was in our Target things were getting pretty picked over although the kids found some toys they wanted and we got a few other things we needed. But I kind of said my goodbyes to Target with that trip and haven't been back since. Now it's just days away from closing for good. It is a sad time for me, because I am a Target person. When asked to choose between Target and Walmart, my go to store is Target.

But since our Target will be gone, I decided to venture into our Walmart in hopes that it had improved. When Target opened, Walmart said they weren't going to make any changes in the store but then a few months later they started renovating the store to add a full grocery store. The renovations took forever but finally finished up a few months ago. While all the work was going on I would only go into Walmart when I absolutely had to because it always seemed so chaotic in the store.

So today I went in. First, I went early because the later in the day it gets, the more packed the parking lot gets. It was busy in the store but at least it didn't have that chaotic feel. There was actually room to push a shopping cart around and get past people without feeling like you were going to knock things over. While I didn't go into the grocery section, the produce I could see when I walked in looked fresh. The different departments had their sections unlike during the renovations when things were all squished together.

I looked at clothes for the kids and that's what really made me miss Target. The prices at Walmart are less than at Target, but the quality wasn't as nice at Target, at least in my opinion. The fabric felt thin and I was concerned about how well it would hold up with the way my kids are with clothes. Target's clothing always seemed to be better quality to me and because of that I was willing to pay slightly more there. I guess I'll either have to start shopping at the more expensive kids' stores or else start making trips down to the States to stock up on kids' clothes.

I was able to find everything that was on my shopping list except for one thing, so there is that. And Walmart has a craft section that includes yarn, which Target didn't have. Of course all the yarn that Walmart carries I can find at Michaels, so I'll have to do some price comparison to see which place has the better deal. It's always good to have more local options for yarn. But I will still miss Target.

And speaking of yarn, I finally remembered to take a picture of my Solar Flare mystery shawl I'm working on. It's not the best picture because my needles are short and I can't stretch out the shawl, but at least I was able to get some of the wedges.

I'm almost done with clue 1, which used the first two skeins out of six. Unfortunately I still have skeins 3 and 4 to catch up on. The designer decided that since it's taking everyone longer than she expected, she won't release another clue on Monday to give everyone a chance to catch up. For this MKAL, she's going to have people vote for their favourite finished shawl and the one with the most votes will win a gift certificate to the Unique Sheep. I'm hoping I win! I love their yarn, and a gift certificate to there would be awesome! We'll have to see how it turns out. I'll keep working on it until the next clue for the Snow Queen comes out. I've got my own fire/snow summer/winter knitting theme going on these days!