Mar. 14, 2012 (ShapeShiftas) -- I needed to waste a little time before picking up the daughters after dance class and was in a town with some shopping.
This is fairly unusual here in Vermont, both the spare time and the presence of some conventional, mall-based, chain store shopping. Thanks to the zoning laws, there are no billboards, and very few malls or big-box stores.
These may be “anti-business regulations” that Republicans are always complaining about, but I for one prefer the Green Mountain vistas and meadows to endless billboards and parking lots. But then, I have done enough shopping for at least three lives and even have been a professional shopper, so I don’t miss the malls and strip centers that others might, the New York flagships, the Macy’s and Nordstrom’s, the Gaps, the Sephoras, no really, I don’t, I mean it. I only go shopping these days for the girls, yeah, yeah, THAT'S it, for the girls!
We hit this really awesome mall, the Walden Galleria, when we were stuck in Buffalo last summer. If a mall is called "galleria", that means it has really expensive stores. This Galleria was one of the best malls I have seen, which is saying a lot.
I found myself and my bit of spare time in the big Vermont town of Rutland, where there is a pretty dead mall (2/3 empty, with Sears and Penney’s for anchors) and two strip centers (the Wal-Mart one and the Bed, Bath, and Beyond one), "dead" here used in the retail sense of the word, and meaning "no one goes there." The strip centers are way busier, partly because each has a grocery store, but also because you can actually see them from the road. The poor mall is up and around a hill, and unless you know it's there, you can easily miss it and its tasteful, modest, green signs. (Alas, you would not be missing much.) The Wal-Mart strip center is Downtown, which has the empty storefronts to prove it. There is a Payless, a Dollar Store and a nail salon, and the only movies around. I prefer the other grocery store in the BB&B center, really try hard to never, ever, shop at Wal-Mart, and don't see many movies these days, so there is only one store for me in the Rutland Wal-Mart strip mall. T.J.Maxx
T.J.Maxx, once one of a slew of regional discount retailers, now 900+ stores and nationwide, one of the last left standing. I have loved TJ Maxx since the 80s, when I started in the Garment Center. They had the nicest buyers, you could always get an appointment, and if you took the time to go see them you would almost always come away with an order. They always had open-to buy and a nice, mid-size "pencil". (Buyers have small, large, or sometimes no "pencils" -- get it?) Their stores have come a long way since then; their stock is more focussed by price-point and looks "clean", merchandised on 4-ways, T-stands, and end-caps, as well as the original and still ubiquitious rails and tables. They still buy a full assortment of hard- and soft-goods, but now advertise their "labels"; back in the day they would buy from anyone as long as their items were selling. Their merchandise mix is pretty spot-on trend, because they usually buy for "immediate" delivery and can pick up what's "hot" ( a Garmento term waaaay before Paris Hilton).
This is the kind of square pillows that TJ Maxx carries, flocked taffeta covers with inserts, $12.99- $19.99 ($29.99 maybe, in their "A"stores)
If they could go to $39.99, they could get our much cooler "X marks the spot" accent pillow, cotton & microfiber suede, hand-filled and made in the USA. Give me a test in your A+ stores (in case someone from TJ Maxx is reading this post). Call me!
Going into T.J.Maxx reminds me of my pre-Vermont Garment Center days every time. I already know the layout of the store, even if I have never been in this particular one. I'm not shopping for anything at all, but I am Shopping.
I make a quick lap around the "racetrack,", checking out a couple of the outer-rim departments I like (shoes, kitchen, home textiles) as I sail by. I'll stop back on my second or third lap for a more thorough perusal, if something catches my eye this go-round. I end up in front of the "infield" apparel sections, which is always Junior sportswear, stage right, misses, stage left, dresses and coats middle, activewear and plus-sizes in back. Still circling, just checking what's new on the aisles and the markdown racks. Maybe I'll touch a sleeve here or a hangtag there, but I am still just getting the feel of things.
On the third lap I begin to Shop. I always go right to the dresses, my department. I look at the assortment of vendors, fabrics, price-points, and styles, and subconsciously straighten the merchandise on the hangars and put the dresses back together by their styles on the racks. I stand there in the middle of the dress department, talking to myself about the labels and the prices, trying to remember who it was that worked at what companies, maybe sneaking a few cell-phone photos (yes, people do think I'm crazy).
This past Shopping trip I saw all sorts of "hot" dresses, mostly matte jersey prints, some solids with lots of draping, shirring, and pleating, all $19.99-$39.99. They had Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein labels in some of these dresses (made in China, of course), those were the $39.99 ones, pretty cheap for what's supposed to be Designer. I laughed out loud at the latest celebrity "designer," Valerie Bertinelli. (Nothing against her personally, they are all funny to me. Take, for example the J.Lo collection at Kohl's. Yeah, I'm sure J.Lo designed it all.)
I hope she didn't put this frock on the line. Damn, she's perky!
I'm still amazed at the prices. I saw a really cute dress in a sweet boho print jersey for $19.99; I used to buy spun polys like these by the thousands for the dress department at Madigans in the 1980's. AT THE SAME PRICE. The ones I bought were still made here, and the TJ Maxx ones are made in China -- but I know the fabric is a lot more today, it's polyester, it's made from oil, everything is more expensive than in 1986. Everything, except for the Labor, out sourced to the latest country that can make the dresses for less and less every year, just so the retailers can keep offering their best-selling price-points. It's so obvious that they really must pay those Chinese workers nothing, at least to my Shopping eye.
Yes, knowing how to Shop makes it pretty hard for me to buy anything. I was able to leave TJ Maxx empty-handed. Really, honey, I didn't buy a thing.
peace, Deborah