The Horrors of Shopping

In the words of one of my friends, I am not a clothes horse.

As a matter of fact, I hate shopping for clothes at all because they never fit. Recently I had an occasion that I had to buy clothes for (more news on that soon), so since I had to go try things on anyway, I bought a lot.

I couldn’t believe my luck. I found not only one pair of pants that fit, but two. Plus a casual skirt, cute shoes that matched all three new bottoms, and a variety of blouses and undergarments.

Since I was shopping with DH2U, he recommended one more store. I was on a roll, so I continued to test my luck. Jackpot! A pair of hiking pants, and a blouse that matched two other outfits. Plus Banana Republic was having a 50% off sale. It was meant to be.

The one thing I could find was a bathing suit to replace the one I bought a decade ago. Even after trying several on, I had nothing to purchase. My fabulous neighbor described her last bathing suit shopping experience as, “At least I didn’t cry.” I’ll second that. Having had my experience, I am so much happier with my trusty old suit of mine.

In all my shopping exploits, what really disturbed me was how some of the clearance retailers treat their customers like criminals. The item counts before going into fitting rooms, the scrutinizing of the tags to make sure they really belonged to the items at the register. I would understand that more at an upscale place where we aren’t talking about a $5 shirt, but then again the patrons of the upscale store wouldn’t tolerate that. The stores I went to were all in the same strip mall, and yet the level of customer service varied dramatically. They all must face the same shoplifting threat. Amazing how different their approaches were.

For someone who it would never dawn on to steal anything, it just adds to my reasons of why I hate to shop. Okay, the moral should be to only shop in stores that treat me better, but it’s me, so that isn’t my take away. Instead I will continue to hate shopping, and be fine with that. It is better for my closet and bank balance anyway. See, I found a silver lining, which is how it should be.