the long road to recovery
during my 'recovery' yesterday, i thought it was time for some good old fashioned shopping to speed the healing a bit, and also because being hopped up on the junk, the credit cards seems to just fly out of my normally tightly-wadded wallet that much more easily. first stop, american apparel, this lovely little 'vertically integrated' t-shirt store based out of downtown los angeles seems to have taken over downtown new york as of late. the colors are lovely, models hot hot hot (i'm a sucker for good marketing), and the styles mostly very cute. but two things i just cannot get past: i'm not quite sure for whom the clothes are cut, but not me, and the prices are a TAD extreme. i'm in that odd middle-ground between barely toned (recall what brought up the tod bump project of 2005 in the first place) and runner-thin. the t-shirts are nicely cut for those still caught up in heroin-chic, or big boys who want to dress like daddy, and the prices make you want to curse kathy lee gifford for bitching and moaning a few years back about sweatshops, bla bla bla. i just want to look cute at a price that won't break the bank. must i be dependent upon the local outlets and thrift shops for such?
it would seem so.
at least there is shoes.com, my new favorite website which is proving that zappos can bite me, as can road runner sports, which used to be my favorite place to get shoes and sneaks on the cheap. no longer, as both of them seem to have become victims of the guerrilla marketing that made them who they are: as their overhead has increased dramatically (no, I do not need the quarterly running mag with which you inflict me), they've pushed their margin accordingly, so there are few bargains to be found at either anymore. but shoes.com seems to have arisen much like a slowly protruding middle finger from the fist of rage being waved from cheap bastards like myself.
and ten years into my new york tenure, i'm rediscovering lord and taylor is the anti-macy's. macy's (and bloomingdale's should you have the $) are, as many of you know, the two worst stores in all of new york city. perhaps the world, but i've not seen harrod's just yet... lord and taylor, however, seems to be a secret. tucked away in a crap part of fifth avenue, and the men's store is tucked all the way on ten. you have to really want to go there, but when you do, bargains for days, and an express elevator to get you to and fro the tenth floor. sadly, federated department stores just bought the may department stores company, so i'm sure lord and taylor will go the way of stern's, a&s, and all the other brands federated has killed over the years. rip, new friend.
i'm finding recovery is expensive. maybe i should just dope up and stick to the cartoons that mancat got for me. i am telling you, grover is just misunderstood fun, my dears. elmo doesn't cut it; grover is your money maker.
it would seem so.
at least there is shoes.com, my new favorite website which is proving that zappos can bite me, as can road runner sports, which used to be my favorite place to get shoes and sneaks on the cheap. no longer, as both of them seem to have become victims of the guerrilla marketing that made them who they are: as their overhead has increased dramatically (no, I do not need the quarterly running mag with which you inflict me), they've pushed their margin accordingly, so there are few bargains to be found at either anymore. but shoes.com seems to have arisen much like a slowly protruding middle finger from the fist of rage being waved from cheap bastards like myself.
and ten years into my new york tenure, i'm rediscovering lord and taylor is the anti-macy's. macy's (and bloomingdale's should you have the $) are, as many of you know, the two worst stores in all of new york city. perhaps the world, but i've not seen harrod's just yet... lord and taylor, however, seems to be a secret. tucked away in a crap part of fifth avenue, and the men's store is tucked all the way on ten. you have to really want to go there, but when you do, bargains for days, and an express elevator to get you to and fro the tenth floor. sadly, federated department stores just bought the may department stores company, so i'm sure lord and taylor will go the way of stern's, a&s, and all the other brands federated has killed over the years. rip, new friend.
i'm finding recovery is expensive. maybe i should just dope up and stick to the cartoons that mancat got for me. i am telling you, grover is just misunderstood fun, my dears. elmo doesn't cut it; grover is your money maker.
posted by tom at 10:07 AM
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