south bay shopping adventure
What started as a simple need for some plastic drawers ended up being an all out Thursday night shopping spree. But I’ll start from the beginning.
I recently invested in a set of plastic drawers to keep my socks, underwear and bras in, as the state of my drawers was not pretty and, quite frankly, I was running out of room. I will admit my clothing collection is a bit large, the hangers in my closet can barely move.
Anyways, I gave my friend Rach the same idea about the drawers, and we decided we would venture to Bed Bath & Beyond [I get coupons in the mail for 20% off a single item and told her she could use one] to get her a set, and she was under strict instruction to get herself a present at target for under $2.87 [dont ask, haha]. We made it to Bed Bath & Beyond and discovered that they had a ton of sale racks set up, everything from stand alone plates and mugs to picture frames for half off. After some digging, Rach found a set of 4 chargers [those fancy plates you put candles on, or put underneath regular plates to make them fancy] for a dollar, and got her drawer set for $17. I found a really cute wall hanging of a gerber daisy for my roommate who was having a bad day, a mini speaker for $5 and a cool coffee mug for 98 cents.
Of course, as we were walking out of Bed Bath & Beyond we noticed Old Navy across the way. I hadn’t been into an Old Navy in years, although I did have a few favorite pieces from the store [including a great bikini] I’ve grown out of most of them. So of course the two of us ventured in, and what we discovered was sale heaven.
First of all, the store was gorgeous, bright with all these happy spring colors. Ironic, since we were in the middle of Dorchester on a very cold January night, but the entire rainbow display of flip flops was enough to make me grin with the prospect of spring.
Back to the sale section of the store, and the signs were almost too good to be true. 50% off of every marked down item. I would have thought the sale was too good to be true had I not known of Express’s similar sale a few weeks back. Of course the section was a slight disaster, but I’ve always found that the trick with Old Navy [like many other stores with good sales/cheap items] the trick is having the patience to dig.
Rach found a pair of maroon slacks she’d tried on at full price and refrained from buying and got them for a whopping $8, and she managed to find this awesome v-neck cashmere with a hole in it, so she got it for $4.99, marked down from $69.50 originally.
I perused the x small, small & medium racks for about 20 minutes and found a few really cute things.
This cardigan confused me at first, and although Rach said right off the bat that she thought it was hideous, I thought it had potential. It may just be my tiny body type, but because the neck was so tight and the waist area so loose, it was not so flattering.
Sorry for the blurry picture, but this item was definitely one of my favorites. 100% cashmere, marked down from $79.50 to $19.99, with an additional 50% off. I couldnt say no. That and the color is fabulous, and I love cowel necks like this. What a steal.
Can you tell I have a turquoise obsession? This pullover ended up being $4.50. Had it been much more, I probably wouldnt have been as tempted, but I loved the way the v-neck fit and you can never go wrong with hoods in the windy city that is Boston. For less than $5, how can you say no?
me & rach smiling because of our amazing purchases! success! ❤‘were practically bribing our customers’
As I mentioned in my initial post, I work at Express. My store is a brand new location that opened just before thanksgiving. The store is enormous, with large mens and womens sections. For the last few weeks, Express has had their annual ‘shop the bins’ sale – the madness that ensues when obnoxious ladies come in to the store to dig through bin upon bin of marked down clearance items that should be organized by size, but by the end of the day theres absolutely no way you can even make out where one bin begins and the other ends. As you can imagine, it’s obnoxious to shop but even more obnoxious to work.
This sale is nothing new, and I’ve seen from working at the store for just a few months that Express is known for their great coupons and their incredible sales. Items that were once $80 get marked down to just $20 or $30 – it makes you wonder why people even bother to pay full price. Well wait. With this economy? They dont.
As my manager put it the other night as we were closing the store – our company is practically bribing customers to come in and shop. The latest twist on the bin sale? Every red-line item is marked down an additional 40% when you get to the register. I bought a gorgeous red satin cinched tube dress that was originally $98 for $17.99 yesterday [and that is without my employee discount, which we sadly don’t get on sale items].
Because of the drastically lowered prices, the sales plans that my managers set out at the start of the week are being missed by thousands of dollars per segment, our numbers are much much lower than then ever were. For a new store, that isn’t so great.
The state of the economy is effecting more than just Express. I have never seen such huge sales in my entire life – it really does seem like the stores are begging shoppers to come through their doors. Everywhere you look, signs are offering 40, 50, even 60% off of once full priced merchandise. The Buy One Get One sales are everywhere. When I worked at American Eagle we were giving BOGO 1/2 off on every single item in the store. Even 344 [the latest jasmine sola store that sells a variety of designer jeans and tops] is offering 30% off of true religion, citizens of humanity and joes jeans [& I am not ashamed to admit that I already went in to find my size and was out of luck, of course]. It’s true insanity. Or, as my friend put it, a girls shopping heaven. The reality is, how much are teenagers and young adults affected by the economy? I hear my parents yell at me over the phone every other day about how I need to stop my spending because times are tough, but I am still working and getting a regular pay check. And when clothes are half as much as they normally are, why wouldn’t I take advantage? A friend was telling me that one of her friends is normally stingy with spending money, that she hates going shopping and buying clothing. But they went to their mall over break and her friend splurged because of all the sales. So does that mean that young adults are ignorant to the downfall of the economy? Are we just unaffected? Do we not care? Or are the sale ploys just really working on us?
Well clearly, I bought my dress. Granted I had an occasion and I already have the heels and jewelry to go with, but still. I have a perfectly good tube-top dress from Zara sitting in my closet that I could have simply reworn. Maybe I just have a shopping problem, maybe the temptation of working in retail is part of that problem, but something tells me I’m not so far off from the average young woman’s shopping pattern.
xoxo; rachel sarah
passion for fashion 