Last time I went up, I forgot my pencil case coming back and so right now I'm rather low on stationary. Not that I use it much, I so rarely write by hand anymore. But for school it's nice to have the most basic supplies just to take a few notes or what have you. So I made a special point of taking a 40 minute detour coming home from school via the city center to stop by the biggest bookstore in town. How the hell does a bookstore not sell stationary?!? :wth: It's bizzarre. In Norway bookstores are the place to go for all kinds of paper goods. They sell books, magazines, all kinds of stationary, wrapping paper, organizers, office supplies, greeting cards, even movies if they're one of the bigger ones. But here, not a single pencil. So I go to two _stationary stores_ and walk out with nothing there either. The stationary here is seriously crap.
Norway has a fairly rich stationary culture, kids get all excited about new pens and stuff for school, there's a wide selection and they usually have what you want. Over here, meanwhile, the closest thing I found today was a selection of fancy pens, which is just the furthest away from regular stationary. Those expensive pens belong on the list of the most useless articles in retail. First of all, what kind of sucker will buy a fancy, expensive pen and expect it to last forever? Secondly, they're usually less good for writing than the regular pens (because they're 'designer' pens, focusing on the look not the function). A fancy pen is the kind of thing you get your dad for his birthday when you're completely out of ideas. Then you pick up a Hallmark card and say "happy birthday, dad! I hope you like this paperweight pen." You have to write that, otherwise he's gonna wonder who lost the pen that somehow found itself into his gift by accident.
When I was at junior high, every August we'd make a big deal about the year almost starting and we'd go downtown for a full afternoon going from store to store to get stationaries, agendas, blah
Bruna was always good to get a truckload of BIG pens or things along those lines. Mass-production stuff, you know. I think Bruna is a national chain but I could be wrong. Vroom&Dreesman always had loads of stuff too, so did HEMA and some local shops like Drvkkery. Nowadays I steal my stationaries from wherever I happen to work/study at that point in time.
Don't remember where there's a Bruna right now, I know there is one in this town.. Walked by HEMA and didn't look like they had stuff like that, I'd be surprised, but maybe.. And V&D; is like 5 floors, I've only traversed it once. :D But on my little tour today I didn't go to the mall, figured stationary stores should be enough. It's annoying how difficult everything is here, whatever I want to buy I have to scour the whole city.
It's a matter of being used to things. I have that wherever I go, in Salerno I once needed four days to find a marker. I never did find envelopes, it's pathetic.
Of course I blamed it only Italy, but I had the same thing (to a lesser extent) in England. I hate how the little things are different everywhere.