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Relax, it’s time once again for your favorite comic book characters, Archie Andrews and all his gang.
It’s Saturday afternoon as Fred Andrews enjoys his newspaper in the living room. Veronica phones for Archie, but since he’s not home she leaves her message with Fred. She is going Christmas shopping and wants to keep it a secret from Archie. It reminds dad that he needs to rush out to finish up his own shopping. Before he can leave, Jughead and Archie get home, and dad relay’s Veronica’s message to meet her an hour later. The added time gives Archie time to rush out to finish his shopping as well. Mom is left home alone when the phone rings. Betty asks for Archie, but mom takes a message. The two gals are reminded that they need to do some last-minute shopping as well. It looks like the whole crowd will be trampling on each other soon.
In the department store, Archie and Jughead make their way to the perfume counter, but not before annoying the floor walker, and breaking a store dummy. When Veronica shows up, Archie hides from her as Jughead talks to her. Will she spill the beans and tell what she’s going to give to Archie?
Once she’s gone, the floorwalker discovers Archie’s hiding place and though he’s not fooled by Archie’s attempt at playing as a store dummy, the floorwalker thinks Archie’s wearing a jacket that he hasn’t bought yet. Not thinking things through, Archie plays along, and decides to take a sales slip for his jacket, exchange it for cash, then he’ll have more money to spend. but now he’s out of a coat.
Meanwhile dad enters the perfume department, but has to hide when mom arrives. In the process dad hides a bottle of perfume in his pocket, and the floor walker sees it. Now dad faces shoplifting charges. The floorwalker is prepared to let the incident slide, but dad has broken his perfume bottle and now has to pay for it.
Mom and Betty shop, and Mrs. Andrews tries on a dress. As Mrs. Anderson goes to seek advice from a store clerk, Betty puts her coat and dress on a shelf, then Jughead comes up to distract Betty with the story of the missing Archie. During the distraction, mom’s coat and dress are missing. What will the floorwalker have to say when mom reports her dress missing? She is stuck running around the store in the bath robe that she had been trying on.
All the emergencies have the whole gang converging on the exchange desk. The family all demand explanations of each other, chaos reigns, but should they expose their secret shopping for the sake of untangling the mess? It seems the wise thing to do, but we’re talking unrealistic cartoon people here.
The frazzled floorwalker gets his explanations and is satisfied. He manages to straighten out the mess, and even offers a few complementary gifts, courtesy of the store. Whew! Now they all can get down to doing their shopping. Maybe.
