The long wait to buy socks begins: The highs and lows of life in Penneys’ virtual queue

This is my life now, I live on this virtual holding page

Denise O'Donoghue after making her way through Penneys' virtual queue and successfully getting a shopping appointment

This morning, Penneys announced the opening of its booking system for appointments, allowing customers to pick a time and day to visit the store next week, ahead of its full reopening on May 17.

For journalistic purposes (cough) I logged on to their website in time for the booking system’s launch to see what it would be like to be in a virtual queue after such a long time. I actually almost miss the thrill of booking concert tickets on Ticketmaster and this seemed like a great placebo.