Retail Manipulation

Kohl’s must be apopleptic. Right in the middle of its Black Friday prequel, the power went out at the local shopping center. I can hear the collective gasp of the cash registers.

The Games Stores Play

Did I mention that I hate shopping? The sales games. The card loyalty games. The coupon games. Every time I go into CVS and I’m asked, “Do you have your card?” I want to scream, but I respond in a clipped tone. “Use yours.” And the clerk duly swipes the store card. I get the discount without the yards of paper touting so-called bargains I have little use for.

However, I’ve been dealing with deferred consumer demand. My eyeglasses were 12 or 15 years old and it had been 10 years since I had an exam. I needed underwear. My favorite 400 and 600 thread count sheets were fraying and/or torn and I had resorted to mix and match; even that wasn’t working any more.

Where have all the sweaters gone?

Umm... No, not what I had in mind.

Update:I was prescient in writing this post back in 2014. An article from Dec. 21, 2023 from The Atlantic, "Read This Before You Buy That Sweater," confirms my frustration. Yes, I'm still wearing the sweaters mentioned below. Facebook memories has shared various postings from Branford Eagle holiday dinners. I still have those dressy clothes from that time -- and still wear them. 

I hate to shop. I enter a store and promptly experience sensory overload. Large department stores and malls are an anathema to me.
 
Part of it stems from the fact that I’ve never had the disposable income to consider shopping as a recreational sport. Another part is the decision-making process involved in selecting anything and the compulsion to make each and every purchase significant.

So it’s mid-winter and bitterly cold. We keep the thermostat low. Sweaters and turtlenecks are requisite attire for maintaining any kind of warmth. I have three or four warm sweaters that are suitable. One is from Bradlees and the other two are from WeatherVane. Anyone remember those stores? If you don’t, that’s an indication of the age of these of sweaters.

The last Bradlees closed in 2001 and Weathervane closed in 2004, but not before it morphed from nice women’s clothes into teen duds. So that makes these sweater a minimum of 10 years old, even 15, since I bought them well before the stores closed.

So where have all the warm wool/wool-blend sweaters gone?