Ghost Rock

I buy gobs of stuff there - cleaning supplies, toiletries, batteries, blank CDs, all kinds of stuff. It's like a little treasure hunt.

There is a lot to be said on both sides of the Wal-Mart fence. My one experience with them was overwhelming. K-Mart has the same effect on me. Some department stores do too (especially the cosmetics counters).

I think I'm visually autistic - too much to see and I stop seeing anything.

Has anyone ever shopped at a Joan Vass (I think thats it) store? They have one of each item on display. You tell the clerk your size and she brings it to you to try on. It would be a happy world for me if that is how all products were sold.

I love big fabulous stores chockful of neatly arranged merchandise. WalMart is a delight on that tip. My one time to a SuperWalMart was quite an experience. The meats were fresh and beautiful and I was fascinated by the guns and that whole concept. I can see a family, parents with small children especially, being drawn to having to only pile in and out of the car one time for everything, food, clothing and hell, a gun if need be, all under one roof. The convenience of that cannot be argued.

Joan Vass? I've seen the ads but have never been in a store. That does sound quite unique. Very haute couture-like.

Yeah, Joan Vass is kind of spendy.

They only had maybe 50 different items to chose from - all made from this incredible cotton, beautifully made, really simple mostly solid color items that all mixed and matched. Lovely stuff. It is like wearing your pajamas without looking like you're wearing your pajamas.

My depth perception is all wonky so too much "clutter" really drives me mad. I can take it only on a small scale. By the same token I don't wear a lot of pattern because it looks so confusing.

Japan aint a dictatorship.

That said, I havent got a clue where the stuff I buy was made ... all the more respect I have for those who do make sure and take care about what they buy. I got a fairly expensive taste in clothes tho, and hardly ever buy in chains, almost always smaller specialty stores, so perhaps that means its more likely to be locally made (err, as in somewhere in Europe, I mean).

To each his own lot: stuff I buy is expensive, but I dont have a lot of it ... so it might look a bit worn ... for the first time in forever (ever?), I currently have three pairs of shoes!

I definately have champaign tastes and a beer budget.

Like you, nimh, I don't buy a lot - very little really - but I do tend to spend on what I buy. I usually buy more than one when I make the trip to a store and find something that I like. (I bought two pair of the exact same jeans yesterday, one that fits just right and one that is a little slouchy.)

As for shoes -- it's almost exclusively Converse. I love Converse. Always have. I bought 10 pair when the news came out that Nike had bought them. I had to make sure that I had the real deal in case they changed them in any way. The rotation is starting to dwindle though so I may have to break down and buy new ones.

I hope to eventually find some good little stores in Columbus. I had my collection of favorite places in Minneapolis and Madison and to some extent Pasadena (the Max Studio outlet probably doesn't count but man was that great, their studio sample sales especially, everything $10 and many of them one of a kind!) but since the kid was born haven't had that, for reasons of time more than money probably (though also plain location).

I've found a few specialty/ small clothing stores here with perfectly gorgeous clothes and absolutely jaw-dropping price tags. I'm pretty much never going to be comfortable with spending $350 for a shirt, no matter how cool it is.

So I get a little vintage, make a little myself, and then fill in the rest with chains.

thats funny.
I love converse.
My cousin has a little girl who is 4 and she got her a pair of kiddie con's before they switched too.

she gave those to me not too long ago.

Im feeling like I should box 'em and save them for a while..
cute cute cute!

Sozlet's absolutely favorite shoes are hi-top Converse All-Stars in three shades of pink (pink, pinker, and pinkest). She's had Gap or Old Navy knock-offs -- everything but the star -- pretty much all the way through, but these are her first REAL ones, and she loves 'em. Lucked into these at Marshall's for way cheap, will ante up for another pair when she grows out of these, I think.

I have recently seen a pair of Converse that are army green on the outside and orange on the inside.

Crave!

I cannot even imagine a garmet that I think is worth $350. I can't think of one single thing that would tempt me at that price.

I suppose that a nice coat would come closest but we don't really need coats here. I have a coat that was my grandfathers. It is the most amazing brown and tan houndstooth thing. I have to roll the sleeve into a cuff but otherwise it fits very well as he was a lanky fella.

The lining is starting to get a bit shot so I probably need to take it in for refurbishing. I could spend maybe a hundred bucks and that coat would last another 20 years.

I was just putting clean sheets on the bed so I turned on Oprah. It was those "What not to wear" girls.

If they ever got their hands on me I'll bet they'd say you are not a rich 14 year old boy.

Nooooo, I dont think I'm gonna be comfortable paying 350 bucks for a shirt in a long time to come still ... some kind of major transition would first need to happen for that <nods>

I did, however, almost two years ago, buy a pair of shoes that was 330 euro ... I havent regretted it, either, I love those shoes to death man, just wearing them made me happy for weeks on end, the sound of 'em, the feel of 'em, made me wanna dance - but that was the purchase that finally settled my name among my friends as one fuccker of a reckless, decadent spender when it comes to clothes, and its true, the only thing I'd ever spent close that much on before had been a coat (twice). The sense of irresponsible decadence was heightened by the fact that my other pair were Pradas, that those had been considerably cheaper but still expensive, and that the salesman of the Prada shop, when I told them about the other ones I'd bought, had gone "ooh, yes ... Collection Privee, those are very exclusive, I cant stock them here I'm afraid..."

Funny thing is - I was so used to confessing that I'd paid 330 euro for my shoes and having people go oooh noooooooooo you didnt, that I was totally fazed when I told that American girl who worked here last summer, and she was, ppphhhtt - unimpressed to the point of "that was what you were going on about?" Chickenfeed, apparently, to her and her like.

Wow, the differences...

you pay that amount for clothes, and you get alot of time out of them yes?

in that sense, 330 for shoes, doesnt phase me too much.

At the cash register , where I had to fork over that money, yeah... I would have stroke number 2 .

But, to own those shoes for.. 3 years? Never having to buy new ones?

Worth every penny IMO.

( sounds like you and i need to go shopping. )

Ooh, sounds like great shoes!! (Any pics?) I have a lot of respect for taste, too, though, that whole thing of being able to identify the best thing in the store (which of course has a commensurate price tag).

I never spent THAT much on shoes, but of any single clothing item, that's probably what I spend the most on. Biggest style/ fashion purchase ever was probably perfume that I had to search a couple of continents for after getting a sample and falling hard, but still use it some 7 years on.

What has always made me happy happy happy is finding the good stuff cheap. Outlets (real outlets, not tourist-attracting fake ones) and warehouses are my friend. There was one in Minneapolis that had all kinds of designer stuff for pennies -- 2-3 seasons out but if you had an eye, you could find good stuff.

Yes, Sozobe, that makes me very happy, too. My best purchase during our last Florida vacation was a pair of Ralph Lauren jeans for $ 15. Yeah!