Minutes Concerning Holiday Crowd Acceptance
The store is full. The store is always full in November. This is known information that is nonetheless surprising.
What Would Have Happened If the Subject Had Not Gone to the Store on a Saturday in November
The subject would not have stood in a parking lot for eleven minutes. The subject would not have navigated a cart through an aisle that was at 140 percent of comfortable pedestrian capacity. The subject would not have stood in a checkout line long enough to read the complete back copy on a display of seasonal chocolate products.
The subject would have needed to return on a different day. That day would also have been in November.
What Actually Happened
The subject went to the store. The store contained November. This outcome was predictable from first principles: the store is located in a region where November precedes a major consumption holiday, and November retail density has been consistent in every prior year the subject has visited this store in November.
The subject was nonetheless unprepared for the crowd.
The Preparation Failure
The subject was aware that the store would be crowded. The subject planned the trip in the morning, identified Saturday as the available slot, noted that Saturday was in November, proceeded to the store, and experienced the crowd as a condition requiring adaptation.
Knowing and being prepared for are not the same cognitive state. The crowd was foreseeable and foreseen and still experienced as an unexpected condition requiring adaptation.
What the Adaptation Involved
The subject modified the route through the store to avoid two high-density aisles. The subject skipped one item that required entering a third high-density aisle and added it to next week's order. The subject made no comment about the crowd to any other person in the store, including the person in line ahead of them who made a comment about the crowd.
The Governing Rule
Holiday crowd acceptance is the process of updating the internal model of retail conditions from off-peak baseline to seasonal operating normal. This update is required every November and every December. It is applied at the beginning of the shopping trip rather than in advance of it, which means it is applied while in the crowd, which is the least convenient moment for it.
The update completes by the second aisle. The subject goes to the store. The subject is briefly surprised. Then not.
Consequence
Eventually holiday crowd acceptance acquires an unwritten enforcement system that everyone denies creating. The subject has begun scheduling November grocery trips on Tuesday mornings when density is lower. This adjustment was made in prior years and abandoned when the schedule made Tuesday morning trips inconvenient. It will be made again.
The subject went to the store on a Saturday in November. The subject accepted the crowd. The shopping was completed. This is also what happens every year.
The record closes here.