My in real life series Switching Worlds went to quite a few different marketplaces looking for things for the garden to possible hiking gear to purchase in the future. I won’t be naming most of these stores since I was just going around taking a few photos here or there and moving on to the next one.
Since I had moved this year, it was out of the question to start my own garden right away. Now we are in the cooler months down here and some might even claim we have moved from fall to winter. It is not expected to freeze during this time of year, so I wanted to try growing things during this time of year.
I’ve always found it a bit strange just how much hunting around the store you need to find all of the gardening supplies they provide. Many stores will flat out have a garden section outside the front of the store as an attempt to lure you in. Usually, this is more to one side of the store that opens up to a gate that takes you into a closed-off but still outdoor area. Finally, you might have to go inside to yet another gardening section.
One of the biggest things I try and keep an eye out for are plants that seem to have any kind of disease or bug problem. While many of these stores attempt to keep things as good as you can. There is always going to be that section of the store where they seem to be having issues with whiteflies or something else. The last thing I want to do is infect all the other plants I'll be getting.
Once you make it from the outside to the inner gardening center that is still outside. You are greeted with rows and rows of flowers and plants. Since I'm not going to be living where I am for very long there was no need to invest in quite a few different kinds of these kinds of flowers. They do, however, look amazing.
One thing I tend to be on the hunt for is the clearance area. They usually change them up weekly or even daily depending on how active the gardening employees of that store are. A lot of the time they will be closing out flowers for 50-90% off.
You do, however, need to be careful and understand why they are trying to clear out things. Most times the plant is no longer flowering and more than likely out of season. I have sometimes noticed some stores will try and offload something for 90% off that is either infected or was quite neglected. Most times those are not worth the trouble.
There is also usually a massive back section of pallets of dirt. Since my garden will be out of planters and buckets, I ended up hitting a few stores just to do some price-checking of dirt. The soil here is also not that great. Needless to say, a few trips are always required to come back for more dirt than you thought you would need.
After a couple of stores, I ended up getting some green and red bell pepper starter plants. Along with a jalapeno. At the time of getting them, they were quite small.
It’s now been over a month and a half, and they are doing alright. If this was the spring and summertime, I'd expect a plant like this to be over double the size if not bigger by now. I’m just rather glad trying this part of the year as a growing session so far is working out. I just have to keep an eye out for the weekly tempters.
Not everything planted was from a starter plant either. Once I was done exploring the outdoor sections of the gardening section at a few different stores it was time to head inside and hit up the final garden section.
I have to say I hate how stores arrange seeds. Seeds are sorted by brand. It is also possible for a plant to sometimes go under multiple different names. So, what you might be looking for might be for sale as a seed just not under the name you were looking for.
Also, if you don’t know which brand is selling the kind of seed you are looking for. Well, good luck with that. In quite a few of these stores, I only took a single photo of a small section. There could be forty columns of seeds to look through. Sometimes it is just randomly arranged by brand and nothing else.
Sometimes, however, it is nice to take a break from looking for one kind of thing and hit up an amazing donut shop. Thankfully this place is quite a little drive to get to so it’s not even a weekly trip here. Maybe every other month if I'm close enough I'll end up stopping by.
Some of the donuts in this place are bigger than your hand. While they do have more normal-size donuts in the back. The good stuff that will break any diet and will be upfront and showcased as it should be.
I also ended up hitting up a few outdoor adventure stores. These places can get expensive. I had three reasons for going into these kinds of stores. First, some of them like REI tend to have a list somewhere in the store of amazing outdoor areas to check out such as this one did. Second, I want to see what is in stock in case I need something minor on the more afforded end to get. Third, price checking.
I am hoping to build up hiking and backpacking supplies over the long run. A long-term goal of mine is to get into a lot better shape first. Which will have to include ignoring that donut shop more times than not.
This was far too cool to not get a photo
A cheap way I'm hoping to do it is by hitting up estate sales and getting some great deals. For those not in the know estate sales tend to be when someone who had a lot of stuff passes or someone is looking to massively downsize.
The first time I ever went to one I was just expecting a massive yard sale. Let’s just say I was a bit in shock when the sign pointed to the front door. Along with most of them not having stuff for sale out on the lawn.
I’ll admit it’s a bit strange walking through a stranger's house and seeing everything they ever owned for sale. You also need to know what things are worth using as you can easily way overpay for something you could buy used or even new elsewhere cheaper.
After a few estate sales, I've started to learn which companies that get hired to price and sell things tend to overprice things. Along with which ones get the good stuff and are willing to haggle on an already great price to get stuff out the doors.
Estate sales are also there to move stuff. They tend to only last for a couple of days. On the first day, everything is at full price. The second day things might be 20% off the listed price. The final day depending on how much stuff needs to be moved, you might get 50% or even better.
I also have noticed when things fail to sell on the last day they tend to get sent to places like Goodwill. Where they might even be cheaper than they were at the estate sale. It all comes down to how much you are willing to risk the item you want vs getting the price you want before someone else is willing to buy it first.
I’ve been to a few estate sales where I see something I want. I’ll come back on the last day and the person who just beat you there by a minute is off walking out with a grin on their face getting said item even cheaper after haggling for an even a bigger discount.
The biggest downside of going to estate sales is seeing the fact women live longer than men. Most of the time it’s just all female items to buy. So, finding the guy stuff for me to buy tends to be rather slim pickings.
I lucked out at one and found a new pair of shoes my size to get. They were also brand new and about 60% off the retail price. The downside is I don’t usually go with that brand of shoes. Since I'm going to be doing a lot of walking and hiking it was quite tempting to pick up all 5 brand-new pairs and haggle for a bigger discount. All sales are however final, and I did not like the wear of most of them which is why I tend not to buy that brand of shoe.
It was however nice to get a few items at a single estate sale for once. Usually, I'm looking at the computer equipment and guy stuff and it’s quite rare for them to have anything modern that is not already gone by the time I get there.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.
