going shopping

I used to think that vending machines were "vennie" machines.

Anon

when i was a kid i useto think if you didn't jump at the end of an exculator you'd get sucked in

Anon

I used to think there was a whole world under the escalators at the mall. I worried that I might slip through it each time that I stepped on. But, if I did, I thought maybe it won't be so bad since there is that other world under there.

Stacey G.

I thought that outlet malls were called outlet malls because they let you out of the stores, since there werent any corridors to walk through between the stores.

G

i remember my sister, 17, and I going shopping with my mom when walking thru a store, my mom stopped to look at picture frames. My sister, not realising the pictures in them were just for show, asked my mom 'Why would you want to buy a photo of someone you don't know??' Everyone laughed and she hasn't lived it down to this day!

Anthony

I used to believe that soda fountains were just that - a fountain that spewed soda instead of water. I was always excited to go to one, but to my disappointed, there was no literal soda fountain.

:p

My sister led me to believe that if you entered the store "Lechmere", a bunch of leaches would attack you and you would merely get away

Anon

One my mom and I walked in front of this toy store and I wanted to go in and check out the toys. She told me no one that wasn't buying a toy could enter. I believed her. Then, several years after, we were looking for a present for my cousin. She entered the store and I told her that we couldn't go insede unless we were buying something. She laughed at me. Who wouldn't? I was 17!

Rory

(this was actually my friend, not me). there was a store called Caldor, and my friends cousin told her it got that name because there was a stampede of cows and one got stuck in the door. she believed that until she told me and i told her it wasnt true.

Anon

When I was little, the cashiers at the store would i guess "pretend" and tell me that when i got candy, i got it for free cuz i was so cute. So, I thought cand was free for me. Anyway, one day, I just took it without telling my mom and I got in trouble! She had this black manager guy come over and give me a "talk" about not being a little theif. It's their fault! they're the ones who told me it was free! I don't know why, but that story al ways made me REALLY mad. argh...

Nick

I used to believe that if I went on the escalators I would get sucked into the vents at the bottom. So I had to be carried on them or would find a way to avoid them all together and walk down the stairs.

Esky

I used to believe that when I went back to the Sears Wish Book and I could not find a toy that I had looked at previously that someone had bought it.

Donna

I used to go grocery shopping with my Dad & ask for the most nutrition-free sugary no-chance-in-hell things, like Count Chocula cereal, etc.

Instead of saying 'no', he'd always say "Just wait, we might get it when it goes on sale."

I didn't really understand the idea of a 'sale' & just thought that the evil grocer-man was displaying these items to torture kids & never letting the 'good' cereals leave the shelves of his store.

I hated the grocery store owner's kids for years because of this misunderstanding.

Sorry kids!

Meghan Warby

When I was little my gee-gee, in order to make sure we held onto the hand-rails, told us the story of a little boy who got his tennis shoe caught in the grid at the bottom of the escalator and was sucked under and ground up. For years my parents had to walk miles in malls and airports to find elevators because I would become hysterical near escalators..

jen

I thought brown paper grocery bags would fit more than plastic grocery bags.

Anon

When I was little I used to see the commercials for furniture where it said so much to pay a month to pay a piece of furniture off over a few months instead of one large lump sum... I thought you had to pay your whole life as long as you owned the piece of furniture, every month.

yeah...

I used to think that a car boot sale was where motorists exchanged car boot lids.

Alan, Sheffield, UK

I used to think that manniquins were real people posing.

Amber