Buying balloons

[Blowitbig]

When im at the store ,standing in the balloon isle choosing my balloons, i often fantasize about someone approaching me and asking me if im a looner,does anyone else think about such things

[MetroBalloon]

Re: Buying balloons

I like male employees talking about balloons, how big they get etc, and then getting to watch them blow them up, to my chosen overinflated size, too.

[Blowitbig]

Re: Buying balloons

Definitely

[BalloonBoyUK]

Re: Buying balloons

Definitely not (fantasising about staff asking me if I'm a Looner)! If someone did that, I'd actually tell them that why I was buying balloons is none of their business. It'd be like having someone come up to you and ask you - completely out of the blue - how big your genitalia/breasts are - just weird, and very, very wrong!

[SusieDK]

Re: Buying balloons

When im at the store ,standing in the balloon isle choosing my balloons, i often fantasize about someone approaching me and asking me if im a looner,does anyone else think about such things

Definitely not (fantasising about staff asking me if I'm a Looner)! If someone did that, I'd actually tell them that why I was buying balloons is none of their business. It'd be like having someone come up to you and ask you - completely out of the blue - how big your genitalia/breasts are - just weird, and very, very wrong!

Hi,

My initial reaction was very much the same, because I always feared - and still do - having my secret about balloons revealed. I also regard it as part of the private and even the intimate sphere, so any kind of discussing it with anybody else but my husband is totally out of the question.

However thinking a bit more thoroughly about if the situation described in the initial postingshould occur, I think it would present quite an opportunity, and I think I would grab it. I will try to describe how I think the conversation could be:

X: Are you by any means a looner?

Me: What is a looner?

X: Eeeh, a looner is somebody who likes balloons in a rather ... eeh .. special way.

Me: I like balloons, but I don’t know if it is special. What should be special about it?

X: Eeeh ... it is a little hard to explain.

Me: Are you a looner yourself?

X: .........

Now the conversation is sort of turned upside down, and I suddenly have the possibility of choosing to maybe get to know another looner - and whether or not to reveal my own secret. Quite an opportunity actually!

It would be much more awkward to be asked less direct questions like what I plan to do with the balloons and such, because that would place the presserende on me instead. Of course I would just say something like “a bang of a party” and smile. It would still feel awkward to be asked though.

However having thought about it as described above I think it would be great to be asked the question “Are you a looner”.

Thank you for reading my view on this.

Sincerely
Susie

[Asclepio]

Re: Buying balloons

I think that if someone ask you “Are you a looner?” There is a chance of maybe 80% that the one who ask is a looner too.

[JK_looner]

Re: Buying balloons

I have fantasised about something like this myself. Not while I’m at the balloon store, usually I just want to grab what I want and leave ASAP. But the thought has come to mind while I’m alone, fantasising about balloon related scenarios. Something like meeting another looner (Male or female, I’m open) while shopping for balloons.

[LoudPopper]

Re: Buying balloons

I think I'm gonna take some of your guys' lead and start sampling all the different types of balloons that I may encounter when shopping. I generally have a strict perference for the specific brands and sizes that I buy and I'm often not really open to trying something new bc I know what I like. But you all really opened up my mind. Thanks for that!

Anyways, if I'm in a dollar store, I usually end up buying at least a significant fraction of all of the 12"ers that they have to offer on the sales racks. Although I prefer 16" and 17" balloons, I think it's awesome that I can buy between 150 to 300 balloons really quick for just $10-$20. Because balloons are seen as valuable to us looners, and the average person doesn't even give a passing thought about them on any given day, it feels like I'm getting away with highway robbery! I fell like there's no reason I should be getting away with buying so many balloons for so little money lol. As I've gotten older, I've become less insecure about buying balloons. In the past, I've been asked multiple times why I was buying so many balloons. I always kept an excuse ready like, I gotta decorate for a really big party. One time when I bought 350 Q24's (at a absurdly low discount of about $45 for all of them) from a concessions and party supply wholesale warehouse in my town, I was halted because they weren't familiar with who I was bc their customers are usually buyers for local businesses and not some random guy with a overly-enthusiastic interest in balloons with an extensive knowledge of brands, types and sizes. Basically, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I had to come up with an excuse on the spot that I was a private party planner, and wound up even sign up and register my made-up "business" with the wholesaler just to secure my purchase!

I remember when I was in my teens and early 20's that I would get super nervous about buying them as if the cashier was somehow telepathic and could instantaneously detect that I'm a looner, and they're gonna immediately out me to the entire store that I'm buying balloons for "extra-curricular" reasons other than just decoration lol. Truth be told, oh I'm gonna "decorate" with them alright, but I prefer to decorate with balloon shards instead of them being inflated. If I was bold enough, I'd love to respond to someone asking why I was buying them with, "my way of decorating requires a little more physical "work", it's messier, and super loud."

[Ilooner]

Re: Buying balloons

I've also had the fear of someone somehow know that I'm a looner who is shopping for his next balloon play.
But then, I realized that it most likely will never happen and now I ask for uniflated balloons every time I visit McDonald's! If the cashier give me a weird look I tell them "for the kids" ��

[frankfrank]

Re: Buying balloons

Without even thinking and entirely without any kind of halt, I responded to a sales clerk in Albuquerque (back in the 1980s) when he asked something like "What are you going to do with these?"

I quickly said something like "We're making a short film, and we just realized the scene needs these."