I tell you what, though – coronavirus will certainly get me out of my dubious habit of “having a look round the shops”. Every three weeks or so I will get on the bus and go into town and have a poke about and see what’s there. Shops are so beautiful these days – sometimes it’s almost like going into a gallery.
I also like most to have a look at what people are wearing because what’s in the shops is all very well, but it’s what people are actually wearing that’s the most interesting.
Masks and queueing has killed all that for me, which on one hand is a shame but on the other hand is probably quite a good thing. I will stop accidentally buying things that I can’t be bothered to take back; I hope that I will start doing that thing that people go on about, which is buying less but buying better things. I will still accidentally buy things online of course – have we met? – but about 80% of what I buy online goes straight back; sometimes I send it back the same day. This backfired with a pair of Mott & Bow jeans, (perfectly alright, but basically very expensive jeggings), that I laboriously sent back to freaking AMERICA, which then arrived back on my doorstep a week later. Bit creepy.
I do feel very sorry for the retail sector but it was about time that something came along to halt the shopping-as-leisure culture, which is a pretty miserable thing. I try not to think about how much time I have wasted having a look round the shops, even though it kind of doubles as cardio because I definitely always did my 10,000 steps.
Where am I going with this? I don’t know. But I can tell you that I have discovered the £12 Net a Porter premier service, where your stuff arrives by special van in a brown bag the next day and then the same van comes to pick it up the day after (in my case). By my reckoning I spend £12 in town on Pret A Manger snacks, lipbalm and some random bit of snake oil from Boots, so that’s that cost written off.
Anyway, this green sweatshirt from The Great is in the Net a Porter sale and it’s gorgeous, really generously cut around the old tum. I am a size 10-12 and took a 1 in this.
i think we will look back at the pre-2020 years as ones with lots of ‘freedom’ i can’t see the days of nipping out anywhere just to look round the shops returning soon. Lots of stores will need to update their online presence to keep customers and attract new ones.
i forgot to say, i watch a few vloggers in USA who use something called Rent the Runway which seems to be a good way of working out whether an item of clothing could work for them without purchasing, you return the items after a few weeks.
I was just wondering this morning whether this would alter people’s tat-buying habits – you know, all the knick-knackery and sweet little bowls for ‘things’ and baskets and, well, just random rubbish, really, that’s in every other gifty-type shop which looks so beguiling until you realise it’s pretty much all the same and all made in factories in China despite looking ‘authentic’. If I question my need to buy eg. rice flour from the healthfood shop b/c I have to queue for six minutes, and I actually NEED that for the (ahem) sourdough *wonders how to subtly say I’ve been making it for years* *solves problem*, who really is going to still want to stand in the cold or rain for however long to idly browse shiny tat we all know we don’t need. At least with clothes there is the the Holy Grail of THAT pair of jeans/ perfect top/ etc which makes every day brighter. Nobody thinks another set of faux tortoiseshell snack bowls will answer anything other than that gnawing guiltynemptiness inside. Typo, but I like it. Nemptiness, n. nihilistic Tuesday morning hollow feeling.
Whoof. Excuse me, apparently I have some stuff to load on eBay this morning.
Sophie this is all so accurate – who wants to queue to browse tat? My problem is lovely things that are arranged in such a lovely way on display tables but then I get home and realise there is not a spare surface in my entire house.
Christ on a bike you’re SPOT ON as usual.
So true Esther. I Love going into town mostly to see what the other girls are wearing. It’s far too much faff to actually undress and try something on (*horrors*). I wonder how we get the people watching without the shopping centre. They’d have to pedestrianise a lot of road space to make it feasible!
Yes, the joy (if that’s the word) of just mooching around shopping areas has gone for me.
I was leaked the video where Pret’s CEO hinted at job losses and passed it on to the press.
Pret will be ok with their billionaire owners JAB/Reimann family based in tax haven Luxembourg.
Pret is just another exploitative company taking from low-wage workers while sitting on millions.
I write on staff issues and the systemic bullying culture and racism in Pret.
On the following link, please scroll down to the screenshots:
https://expret.org/2019/10/28/caught-in-the-act-at-pret
.