7 Shopping
Next, Iris entered a sports equipment store. After purchasing several of the sturdiest, highest-quality baseball bats, she took the opportunity to stock up on adventure gear: flashlights, helmets, body armor, protective gear, tents, hazmat suits, waterproof jackets, and more.
She got every piece of outdoor equipment she could think of.
The total cost for these items came to over 20 thousand dollars.
The store also had emergency kit accessories, such as tweezers, pliers, hemostatic tape, thermometers, and more. This reminded Iris that she needed to stop by a pharmacy.
After leaving the outdoor gear store, she headed to a pharmacy to replenish her supply of common medications: cold medicine, hemostatic agents, fever reducers, vitamins, bandages, alcohol, and iodine.
She had no interest in prescription drugs whatsoever—they would be completely useless.
Having survived ten years in the apocalypse, she knew that anyone who relied on daily medication would have been eliminated long ago.
A small stockpile of emergency medicine was enough, even more than enough.
In the apocalypse, poor health was a sin in itself.
By the time she left the pharmacy, it was already 5 or 6 in the evening.
The city’s neon lights blazed brightly.
Iris had now stocked up on everything essential: food, water, shelter, and basic necessities.
All that remained was to supplement some upgraded daily necessities. She still had 1.57 million dollars left.
Why not go shopping?
To indulge herself! To buy whatever she needed!
Before the apocalypse, she wanted to enjoy the prosperity of the world one last time.
First, Iris dined at a Michelin-starred restaurant she’d never been able to afford before.
She ordered a luxurious feast: truffle mushroom soup, garlic-glazed short ribs, pan-seared cod, crispy roasted duck, garlic butter shrimp, and every other dish she’d once longed for but couldn’t buy.
Iris enjoyed the meal thoroughly, and for the garlic butter shrimp and filet mignon—which she particularly liked—she asked the kitchen to prepare ten servings to go.
She had to bring some back for Summer, too!
After dinner, she checked into a suite at the hotel, then went back downstairs to shop at the attached mall.
The mall was filled with a dazzling array of department stores and a wide variety of tempting foods.
Accustomed to hard times, Iris headed straight for the food court as usual.
The food court had everything imaginable: fragrant churros, loaded nachos, cheesecake, cream puffs, fried chicken tenders, pork schnitzel, hot dogs, ice cream, milkshakes, and fruit smoothies.
Seeing all this, Iris realized there were far too many things she wanted to buy.
Unfortunately, time was limited, and her money wasn’t infinite—these items hadn’t made it onto her essential shopping list.
These were little luxuries of peacetime, and would be impractical after the apocalypse.
But for now, she could buy to her heart’s content, eat and drink to her fill.
Iris went from store to store, buying out each one. She would walk in quietly but generously, find a clerk, say she wanted all their snacks, pay, and ask them to deliver everything to her hotel room.
Every clerk was shocked when they heard this, hurrying to pack her orders.
Take the first bakery, for example: all the fresh-baked sourdough bread, cheesecakes, cream puffs, tiramisu, cannoli, croissants, fruit tarts, macarons, waffles, and butter cookies were carefully packaged and sent upstairs to her room.
At the fried chicken joint next door, she ordered every flavor available: classic crispy, spicy, honey BBQ, and garlic parmesan. She got all types of chicken too—boneless chicken nuggets, drumsticks, wings, and whole roasted chickens.
At the milkshake and smoothie shops, she ordered one of every flavor: milkshakes, fruit smoothies, iced lattes, and slushies.
After paying and leaving her room number, she would leave without drawing any extra attention.
By the time Iris finished her round of the food court, she’d spent over 200 thousand dollars just on snacks.
Most stores had around 10 thousand dollars’ worth of stock on hand. For stores where she didn’t feel the need to stock up heavily—like the taco stand and churro shop—she just ordered one of each flavor to go, spending only a few hundred to a few thousand dollars at each.
With that 200 thousand dollars, Iris had cleared out all the snack shops on the second and third floors of the mall.
After finishing with the snacks, she headed down to the supermarket in the basement.
A supermarket was a must-visit!
Iris first grabbed two large shopping carts and wandered around the massive warehouse-style supermarket.
At checkout, her carts were filled with one of each item: a bag of each flavor of potato chips, one box of each type of cookie and candy, one bottle of each soda and juice, and all the prepared foods—bratwurst, roasted chicken, Caesar salad, sandwich wraps, and pre-made pasta salads.
She also picked up semi-prepared items: marinated chicken thighs, pork chops, fish fillets, and instant pasta kits.
For daily necessities, Iris bought toiletries, facial cream, feminine hygiene products, disposable towels, and wet wipes.
Since this shopping trip was focused on improving her quality of life, she also ordered essential appliances: a washing machine, a robot vacuum cleaner, and a refrigerator.
Iris would never have considered buying these before, but now that she had the money, she was going to spend it.
After checking out with the two carts full of items, Iris directly found the store manager.
She asked him to provide her with all the store’s inventory of everything in her carts—except for the appliances.
However, Iris had underestimated the inventory size and prices.
Before she could even get all the items from her two carts, her wallet was empty!
One million three hundred thousand dollars had only bought her one-third of what she wanted.
How embarrassing!
Basic grains and oils had been cheap when she stocked up earlier, but processed goods were several times more expensive.
Looking at her depleted bank account, Iris finally decided to settle for what she could get.
It would have to be enough; she could always make her own gourmet food from raw ingredients later.
She gave the manager her address and asked if he could deliver the goods that day.
The manager assured her it would be no problem.
Iris glanced regretfully at the fully stocked supermarket, feeling a twinge of disappointment.
After leaving the supermarket, she wandered upstairs.
She’d only visited the food court and supermarket in the basement levels so far; she hadn’t had the money to buy the clothing on the floors above.
Only about 70 dollars remained in her account.
But 70 dollars was still enough to go window shopping—one didn’t need money to browse!
Iris first bought a 14-dollar iced cocoa at a convenience store, then started wandering through the clothing stores one by one.
By the time she finished browsing the three clothing floors, she finished her iced cocoa.
During her browse, she saw a few pieces she liked.
“How much is this varsity jacket?” Iris asked a sales clerk.
“Ma’am, we’re having a sale right now—50% off, so it’s 2000 dollars,” the clerk replied.
Iris said nothing after hearing the price.
Two thousand dollars—even with the half-off discount.
This was the city’s top mall, filled with luxury brands. It was truly beyond her means now.
She left empty-handed.
As soon as Iris was gone, the store manager, Mariah Quinn, nudged the clerk who’d helped Iris.
“Why bother with her? She’s clearly a poor girl who can’t afford anything! Didn’t you see her wandering around several floors empty-handed? She could never afford our stuff! You need to be smarter and learn to judge people…”
The reprimanded clerk pouted but said nothing.
However, Iris had heard their conversation but ignored it, continuing to walk forward.
Having struggled for ten years in the apocalypse, she was no fool. She wouldn’t rush up to argue or impulsively spend money just to prove them wrong.
In the apocalypse, there was no need for petty revenge. Those who crossed her were simply eliminated.
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
