I went to the shopping center in Chalmette and took a look inside Deals.

July 12, 2025. Day .

I had to drop something at the UPS Store so I decided I'd walk around the shopping center it's in. There were three storefront churches. I bought some frozen pupusas and maduros at a Hispanic grocery. And then I took a look inside "Deals". It's a real dystopia of savings. The merchandise is just tossed into bins, not really arranged even semi-thematically.

It reminded me of being twenty, living in Boston, and taking someone's advice to visit "Zapato Shoe". It was a "shoe store" but it only opened once a week, at 9 a.m. on Saturday or something. The shoppers waited by a conveyor belt that came through a window into the basement. After a while, shoes came down the belt. Not shoes in shoeboxes, or even pairs of shoes. Just individual shoes that went in to a big bin, If you saw one shoe you liked, you grabbed it, checked the size, and if it was right you waited or dug around in the bin for its mate. I got a good cheap pair of Converse All-Stars that way.

I was a bit interested in these bookshelf speakers but I opened the box and there was just a Conair hairdryer inside.

Louisiana Chalmette Deals shopping Zapato Shoe Boston Converse All-Stars Conair hairdryers