A Retail Carol

<p>Shopping for a last-second gift on Christmas Eve isn't for the faint of heart.</p><p></p><p>The Westbrook Trading Company is a struggling department store slowly losing its battle with online shopping. With flickering fluorescent lights outdated shelves and the relentless buzz of the Rat Pack Christmas playlist the store is a weary monument to a retail era long gone by. But tonight it's the unlikely epicenter of desperation nostalgia and absurdity.</p><p></p><p>As crowds descend in search of the elusive Plastic-Thing-3000-this year's must-have gadget-an ensemble cast of bargain hunters exhausted employees and misguided romantics collide in a night of chaos longing and tender moments. At the helm is Archibald Hensley III a joyless miser clinging to cassette tapes and outdated ideals whose personal regrets echo through the aisles like the Ghost of Christmas Gone Wrong.</p><p></p><p>Between a pastor who cut his service short to go last minute shopping a mother trying to win a toy for her daughter a chintzy snow globe with too much history and two best friends fumbling to relive their glory days the night unfolds as a bittersweet darkly funny reminder that sometimes the worst places bring out the most human parts of us.</p><p></p><p>A Retail Carol is a satirical holiday story for anyone who's ever spent Christmas Eve fighting for a parking space battled for a bargain or tried to buy love with a receipt.</p>