Tag: Shopping

I don’t know about you but I kind of get the blues when the weather begins to get warm.I’m a wacko but there’s real reason behind it.
When the weather is warm you can’t wear a coat.When you can’t just throw a coat on over your clothes everyone outside can see what you’re wearing.If everyone can see what you’re wearing maybe you should make an effort.If you have to make an effort you’ve got to spend money to do so.If you have to spend money don’t you have to have money.See? The blues.
Therein lies the dilemma.

In an earlier post I described at length my desire to begin dressing more feminine and wear less black this spring/summer season. So far I have done alright as it is still slightly cool and I’ve been able to lean on the coat crutch. But my days are numbered and my trips to Forever 21 have sent me home with the usual one black item to keep and one color item to return. Despite my attempts to break away from black it seems I veer back to the black rut of comfort,time and again. My closet looks funereal.
I may have to just accept this about myself.It’s that or an endless loop of shop &return, shop&return.
I have been known to spend a woozy 4 hours in Macy’s,trolling the sale racks and getting some super deals: a pair of pants for 11.99.AT-shirt for 9.99. A RL blouse for 20.00 and etc.But that was all luck I seemed to have in the larger 34th street branch;the Brooklyn branch being so much smaller has less to choose from.
When I was richer and I got the blues I’d buy shoes. Typical. Then I became poor because I no longer wished to work for anyone and my retail events were cut down to the Salvation Army. That tended to have an exacerbating effect on depression so I turned to Chinatown for relief. In NYC, our Chinatown is the home of Pearl River which is basically a chinese version of a bazaar where you can pick up a brightly coloured rice paper lantern for 5 bucks and be happy.
If I need a bigger buzz I head to Strand Books and dive into their bargain books section.In Fiction you can do well,there a famous, widely reviewed, multiple printing copy of a novel can be had for about 5 to 7 dollars. Not bad.
Lately,I’ve had to make due with what can be turned up on Myrtle ave here in Brooklyn.I really don’t have any $ at the moment and so going to the city is doubly pointless,for shopping, that is.
We have a store called Home Mart and it isn’t actually that dismal.I’ve been able to cheer myself up with a new cloth shower curtain from France for 6.00. That’s less than those horrible plastic ones from Bed Bath and Beyond…Or some blue and white china mugs by Oenida for 2.99 a pair. Or new feather pillow for 6.00.
You might say I’m making myself poorer with all these little purchases which can add up.But even if you are right I was explaining my method of retail therapy for the poor, not the judicious. I don’t think the judicious need to shop at all.They’re all so smug rolling on top of their pile of money.

My friend Landon is from Youngstown,Ohio.So is Nanette Lepore.They know each other,too.I guess Youngstown is a small town.
Anyway I’m scheming because I love this dress but it costs $300 and seems to be unavailable at the moment.How cool to be able get it and at a discount?
Not that I’d ever wrangle a friend or pay so much for a dress.But it is really pretty.

The Forever 21 store branch on 14th and Union Square is probably one of the worst clothing stores in the world.The selection is awful,ugly and the displays are horribly maintained.
I have no idea why the one store with the same name on Fulton Mall in Brooklyn is a dream while the other one is a nightmare.Aren’t they the same store-owned by the same people with the same merchandise?
Ok, so the one on Union Sq. is destroyed because it gets more foot traffic,I know.
But that doesn’t explain why I can never find anything worth buying.
Whereas in the Fulton mall branch I’ve found lots of cool things every time I go.
That picture is of someone’s messy room. I put it here to show you what the Union sq. store looked like last Thursday evening.

So are you,probably.
Don’t feel bad-we can’t help it.And people who can help it come off as know it alls who we secretly hate because they make us feel stupid for not being as aware as they are.

Branding is what the big companies call it when we little consumer ants recognize and therefore want or do buy a product simply because somehow it’s gotten in our heads that this is a good product for whatever reason.This may sound vague to you and it is vague.Can you state clearly and simply the subconscious reasons you bought that sweater? Probably not.

If you realize that you must have something–that your life just might be better if you have that something-then you play into the hands of consumer branding. It isn’t for nothing that Advertising has long studied the psychology of the consumer.Believe me-they have the drop on us.And as Americans we are subject to constant branding assaults merely by being alive and somewhat aware in this society.
I say somewhat because of the insidious nature of this assault.We as consumers are required to be only somewhat aware, being too aware threatens the house of cards.
No doubt you took a course in college related to this subject.If that was some time ago,your edge has probably dulled by now.
Mine certainly has. I try to look at television with a sceptic’s gaze but one can’t be 100 percent vigilant against all of It.
It has a way of getting in.
For a rather innocuous example: my recent spending spree in Sephora. A long time ago I realised that most make up was like shampoo and therefore it didn’t need to cost a lot to do it’s job which was to make you look cute.So I stopped exclusively buying my makeup in department stores and instead bought from drugstores. I went from Clinique to L’Oreal and never lacked for dates.
I was able to live my life happily despite the fact that I owned no expensive warpaint even when all around me women I knew were showing off their latest 20 dollar mascaras.
I succumbed when Sephora opened it’s doors.
Of course it isn’t their fault that I love makeup! They just want me to be able find and buy it more easily.Aren’t they nice? But there is still the fact that drugstore makeup that I used for years is still just as good as the fancy stuff in Sephora.
I mean, didn’t I just buy an 18 dollar concealer by Benefit even though my Max factor one at a quarter of the price works just fine? If not better because the 18 dollar one makes my skin look drier? Yikes. I’ve been had,right? All because I wanted to be a little fancier.You get what you pay for? Not always.Sometimes you pay too much for something that doesn’t work as well as it’s cheaper cousin simply because it’s branding is sexier.
Here’s another burn: I bought a 75 dollar perfume because it was by Fresh despite the fact that there was a 25 dollar one that I smelled,loved and passed on simply because it wasn’t by Fresh! So what happened? All I can say is I was surrounded. They beat me down. I’d never heard of the 25 dollar one before.It’s that simple.