Shopping
I don’t normally drown my sorrows in a sea of retail, but I have been doing a lot of shopping lately. More than ever, especially after getting my own apartment and realizing that I had pretty much nothing in the way of furniture or anything generally useful.
I love and hate shopping. Everyone loves getting new stuff; clothes, chips, yogurt flavors, the accessory that you didn't know you needed until you saw it in the store. I especially like online shopping, but I think that’s mostly because I love getting things in the mail.
Shopping also makes me go insane. For example: super Wal-mart. This is a store with just too much stuff in it. It is both convenient and overwhelming to me that I can get groceries, plants, windshield wiper fluid, socks, and a DVD player in the same place. Here, and in any number of stores, I can find myself agonizing over the most ridiculous minutiae. For me, there are just too many choices. I can stand for long minutes in the paper aisle and debate with myself if I want super soft toilet paper or super strong. “They’re both the same price, but this one claims to be softer. Okay, I’ll feel it...now I have to feel the other one…they feel the same. Well, this one has quilting. What does quilting do anyway? Do I need super strong? It’s not like I’m going build a bridge with it.”
It goes on and on; double rolls, singly ply or double, mega rolls (whatever that means), value size, with or without George Bush’s face on it, super absorbent. In the end, who really cares anyway?! They all do the same job. After wondering just how long I had been standing there I blindly grabbed one off the shelf and threw it into the cart.
And it’s not just toilet paper, it’s everything! Ice creams that boast 10 less calories per serving than the other guys, very young peas or just young peas, low fat, reduced fat, or less fat chips, pasta shapes, egg sizes, different types of salad in a bag. I can smell different flavors of shave gel over and over for 5 whole minutes before deciding on the same flavor I always get. I don't need so many choices.
I don’t know why these decisions are so difficult to me.
Conversely, with clothes, I am very decisive. I never know what I want, but I definitely know what I don’t want. I can blast through a rack of clothing faster than anyone I know. The commentary is usually “hate it, hate it, hate it, has potential, hate it, hate it…) When I’m shopping for clothes, I subconsciously allot myself one trip into the changing room, even if I have to bring in 20 items (although I think I'm only allowed 6), it's one trip. In and out.
Recently I went to an organic market. The store was full of yuppies carrying their starbucks, toting their children wearing organic clothing paying $8 for a box of cereal. What is organic clothing? And why does it cost so much more than non organic clothing? I am not, by any means, on the organic bandwagon. But, I bought some apples, and absolutely the most effing delicious croissants this side of the Atlantic! I was almost mad that they were so good, as for some reason, I don’t want to believe that organic food is different than regular food. But they were so good….
Ooh, sorry, I got lost in a fantasy about biting into a crunchy and squishy croissant.
I love and hate shopping. Everyone loves getting new stuff; clothes, chips, yogurt flavors, the accessory that you didn't know you needed until you saw it in the store. I especially like online shopping, but I think that’s mostly because I love getting things in the mail.
Shopping also makes me go insane. For example: super Wal-mart. This is a store with just too much stuff in it. It is both convenient and overwhelming to me that I can get groceries, plants, windshield wiper fluid, socks, and a DVD player in the same place. Here, and in any number of stores, I can find myself agonizing over the most ridiculous minutiae. For me, there are just too many choices. I can stand for long minutes in the paper aisle and debate with myself if I want super soft toilet paper or super strong. “They’re both the same price, but this one claims to be softer. Okay, I’ll feel it...now I have to feel the other one…they feel the same. Well, this one has quilting. What does quilting do anyway? Do I need super strong? It’s not like I’m going build a bridge with it.”
It goes on and on; double rolls, singly ply or double, mega rolls (whatever that means), value size, with or without George Bush’s face on it, super absorbent. In the end, who really cares anyway?! They all do the same job. After wondering just how long I had been standing there I blindly grabbed one off the shelf and threw it into the cart.
And it’s not just toilet paper, it’s everything! Ice creams that boast 10 less calories per serving than the other guys, very young peas or just young peas, low fat, reduced fat, or less fat chips, pasta shapes, egg sizes, different types of salad in a bag. I can smell different flavors of shave gel over and over for 5 whole minutes before deciding on the same flavor I always get. I don't need so many choices.
I don’t know why these decisions are so difficult to me.
Conversely, with clothes, I am very decisive. I never know what I want, but I definitely know what I don’t want. I can blast through a rack of clothing faster than anyone I know. The commentary is usually “hate it, hate it, hate it, has potential, hate it, hate it…) When I’m shopping for clothes, I subconsciously allot myself one trip into the changing room, even if I have to bring in 20 items (although I think I'm only allowed 6), it's one trip. In and out.
Recently I went to an organic market. The store was full of yuppies carrying their starbucks, toting their children wearing organic clothing paying $8 for a box of cereal. What is organic clothing? And why does it cost so much more than non organic clothing? I am not, by any means, on the organic bandwagon. But, I bought some apples, and absolutely the most effing delicious croissants this side of the Atlantic! I was almost mad that they were so good, as for some reason, I don’t want to believe that organic food is different than regular food. But they were so good….
Ooh, sorry, I got lost in a fantasy about biting into a crunchy and squishy croissant.
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