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A tall redhead surveyed the shelves upon shelves of camping gear. He honestly didn’t need anything but his tent was getting rather worn, as was his sleeping bag, so when he passed the store on his day off he figured ‘why not’. There were lights, food, tents, clothes, bags… anything and everything one could use for camping. He kind of wished that he had stepped into this store with an actual goal in mind since it was all a little overwhelming.

With a mental shrug Pat made his way over to the tents, contemplating the few ‘smaller’ tents that were set up as displays. That contemplation went right down the drain when he spotted the price tags. “Good god,” He muttered, purple gaze wide at all those numbers. How was a tent that expensive? Why? He knew inflation was making everything more expensive, his wallet could attest to that most strenuously, but good lord! Spending over a hundred on what amounted to as a two person tent was exceedingly obnoxious. Yes the tag said it slept 5 but as Pat eyed the sample tent he figured that whoever those five people were, they were either very close or children because otherwise there would be no elbow room. Absolutely none. His small little one person A-frame would give him more room than five in that tent.

Pat’s mental bank account just wept as he saw the tag for one of those canvas sided tents. Considering the size, materials, and versatility of it… the nearly 995 dollar price tag made sense but it still hurt to see. Spending nearly a thousand dollars on a tent? It was mind boggling to him and something he could not do. Not for a hobby he did occasionally. There was no point. But still, it would be nice to have that kind of disposable income… and the time to use such a tent.

Going out west for months at a time would be ideal. Sadly he needed to eat, pay rent, and, just in general, be a productive member of society.

Pat was curious and for shits and giggles was looking up the tent online to see if it was possible to get a cheaper version somewhere. He didn’t need it… didn’t mean he didn’t want it though. “More like ‘or something’. Pretty sure only those who have more money than sense tend to get these.” He muttered before pulling his head out of his phone to realize that he now had actual company in the aisle. Purple eyes quickly took in the other male, figuring the guy was a few years younger than his own 34 years but honestly wasn’t sure. It was hard to tell sometimes, especially as he got older. The few items in his cart made Pat figure that the guy at least knew what he was looking for… he wasn’t one of those ‘toss money at it to fix it’ kind of people. As far as Pat could tell. “Honestly this tent is either for someone who knows what they are doing and camps for like 8 months out of the year or really does have more money than sense. I personally would lean towards the earlier then the later since one of those,” He nodded towards the ‘mega’ tents that were ‘easy’ to put up and had all the damn bells and whistles, plus you could get the additional tents so it turns into some adult tunnel toy contraption, “are a bit more on the ‘cool factor’ side of things.”

Pat took a closer look at the other fellow’s cart, he glanced around and then made a few suggestions. “Not sure how ‘now’ you need that stuff but you might find a better deal at an Army Surplus store or Tractor Supply. The closest Tractor Supply is about 40 minutes to the south, towards the city limits. Army Surplus is online as far as I know. I haven’t seen one in the city at least. Then there is always Amazon and the other big box home improvement spots. Granted with the way things are costing they might all be relatively comparative.” He nodded back to the canvas tent, “That's about the same price on Amazon at least.”

The redhead sighed and shrugged, “Not saying that Amazon or really any online retailer, will be any cheaper and dear lord I would prefer to spend a little more to keep smaller mom and pops open, but it's all relative. Can’t really beat this place’s cost on clothes though and their camping food isn’t bad either.” He had spotted some really good thermals for just below standard price, enough that he was tempted to get them. Pat held off because he had plenty at home, even with the chilly season coming up on them fast.