Rant: Why I hate the mall

[crispini]

I have been shopping lately for a newly acquired corporate job (lovely! :sarcasm:) and every time I set foot in one of those soulkilling palaces of consumer acquisition I am reminded yet again about why, WHY, I never, EVER go there unless completely forced to by the fact that if I do not shop I will show up at the client's site wearing jeans with holes in them and a t-shirt that says "Texas Democrats Kick Ass." Which would not be appropriate, probably, but a great deal more entertaining than the boring corporate monkey suit bullshit we all have to wear. And more comfortable to boot.

Anyway. I hate the mall because, first and foremost, there is TOO MUCH STUFF in there. That's right, there is far too much stuff and I have a serious case of analysis paralysis. I was apparently born without the fashion gene and as a result I have a only vague idea of what looks good on me and what is appropriate. Also, I am fat. I have survived by enlisting friends to advise me and sticking to what is simple. As a result I wear an awful lot of black. But when I get in a mall, with a world of possibilities open to me, I have a real problem figuring out even what to try on. And there's store after store after store after store of stuff. All with different prices! I am also cheap. I resent paying horrendous sums of money on an item that I may or may not actually like once I've worn it. And then, of course, it may or may not be on sale, and what if it goes on sale next week? You see how it goes. I have on at least one occasion walked into a mall, looked around helplessly, and walked out again, realizing that my head was definitely not in any kind of space to deal with it right now.

Beyond my personal problems, however, I dislike what malls stand for. The meaningless, mindless acquisition of stuff just for the acquisition's sake. Yes, here we all are on the consumer merry-go-round, so let's shop til we drop! Never mind the fact that that's how we've gotten ourselves into this global-warming, resource-depleted world we find ourselves in, where polar bears are dying because they can't swim far enough because the ice packs are breaking up, and we're depleting the rain forests to plant plantations of crap. Nooo, let's just merrily keep on dancing until we have consumed ourselves out of existence! Delightful. This attitude, of course, makes it very difficult for me to actually ENJOY shopping -- I understand some women do, but it is not something I have ever been adept at, what with the planet-killing guilt, the pennysqueezing impulse, and of course, the being fat. Which, by the way, if you are a woman over size 12, there are a million stores in the mall which are Not For You and that's a whole 'nother rant which I have neither the time nor energy to rant about right now.

Phew.

Okay, rant over. :P

[taterguy]

1. Burn Down the Malls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAoh_yteKkc

[CreekDog]

2. What's not to like?

:rofl:

[fizzgig]

3. i hate hate hate hate! the mall

i've only been twice in the last year or so, but both times the misery and despair that filled that place was so overwhelming that i wanted to turn around and run away.

[femmocrat]

4. Here is a good place to find nice looking clothing in women's sizes.

C. J. Banks. If you don't have one in your mall, their website has lots of nice stuff on sale. I am on the email list for them and their other store, Christopher & Banks (misses and petites), and they notify subscribers of their weekly specials. Their shipping is about $8, but sometimes they have free or reduced shipping.

Last week I got 3 pairs of nice pants for work for 9.99 a pair. Today I found a cardigan sweater and a cute denim jacket for 9.99 each. They do have dressier items that could work in an office.

(On edit: I never pay full price in there. Sooner or later just about everything is on sale.)

Good luck! :hi:

P.S. Now if I could only find a site with comfortable shoes, I would be in heaven!

[crispini]

5. Thanks! I'll check it out!

As far as shoes, I have found everything that Dansko makes to be very comfy. Good luck!

[Digit]

22. I also recommend Dansko shoes

My feet have never felt better.

Years ago, I sold women's shoes and saw the hammertoes, bunions, and all manner of foot problems due to wearing horrible shoes. Nowadays, at least in my area, I see many women wearing pointy toed high heels with jeans walking around the mall. I only mention the jeans to show the heels are worn with casual attire. It seems to be the "style". I shudder to think what they are doing to their feet.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Shoes...try zappos.com

weird name, yes.

They have free shipping both ways, come highly recommended by consumerist sites, and have whole and half sizes, various widths.
Many many manufacturers, brand names, varied prices.
Trade ya C.J. banks for zappos....thanks.

[femmocrat]

10. Thank you both.

Yes, Zappos has a huge selection! Never tried Dansko... but I'll look for them at Zappos! :)

:hi:

[musette_sf]

34. also try 6PM

http://www.6pm.com/

which is Zappos' outlet store.

[rcrush]

6. I hate this outdoor mall they built in San Antonio

I always get lost in the damn thing when I have to go to the Apple store I have to use the GPS on my phone to find my car. Plus the people who hang out there are so damn annoying.

[nytemare]

9. There is one like that here in Orlando.

Some of it is covered, but most is outdoors. I really have a decent sense of directions, but I swear I need my Navigon with me to find my way out of this place. I think they do it intentionally.

[latebloomer]

7. Gad, I am so with you!

I devoutly hate shopping in general. I do like clothes, but the last thing I ever feel like doing is searching for them- tramping around a mall, which makes my back hurt, trying on a million things to find something that looks and feels right and isn't too expensive.

I actually have quite a bit of Christmas and birthday money sitting around, waiting to be spent, but I'd rather come home and read or fiddle with the computer.

[crispini]

15. What we need are personal shoppers!

Why, oh why, can't my mom be one of those clothes buying moms? With good taste. :D

[Danger Mouse]

11. How's the job search going?

[crispini]

13. Employed!

I am happy to have a job, but I am a little frustrated about where I landed. Sadly, I'm not sure it's a good fit. It's a bit on the stuffy side, which is SO not me. And there is a LOT of travel. Nevertheless, I am grateful to be employed in my field and pulling down a regular paycheck. :D

[Danger Mouse]

35. I'm glad you found a job

:) :hug:
It's a rough market these days...it certainly sounds less than ideal, but hopefully it'll get better with time.
Hang in there till then. :pals:

[Deja Q]

12. Let me guess: You bought your TV, computer, monitor, and printer online.

At PC Mall or Mac Mall .com?

:evilgrin:



The system itself isn't bad. Making things extra cheap so they break and need to be repurchased is the real problem. IMHO, of course.

[crispini]

14. Actually, I went to MicroCenter.

Local nerd shop; very nice people. NOT in a mall. :D

I agree about cheap stuff. I've actually started doing some of my shopping at a local thrift store. When I find nice things there in good condition, I know they'll last and anyway the price is SO right!

[Droopy]

16. I hate malls, too

But my reasoning is not as sophisticated as your's. I just hate the crowds and inconsiderate people that the mall seems to attract. I have not been to our local mall in ages.

[crispini]

18. Hahahahaha. I have given plenty of thought

to my hatred of malls, for sure. But I agree with the crowds and the inconsiderate people. :D

[NMDemDist2]

17. pick your best fashion nazi friend and ask them to be your personal shopper

that's what I did for years. I had a pal who LOVED to shop. Loved it.

I told her what I needed and gave her a budget and she came back in a couple hours with good stuff

try it. once you get braver, go with her and learn how she does it. it's a skill just like any other.

edit to add, LandsEnd.com is good too. if you read their guide on sizes and measure, everything will fit perfect

[crispini]

19. Worth a try!

Who to ask, who to ask... hm...

[NMDemDist2]

20. ask a pal who you think looks good most of the time

my experience is folks who dress well LOVE to help their fashion impaired pals get looking good.

you probably have a friend who is DYING to help get you dressed :rofl:

[crispini]

24. I'll have to keep thinking....

the most stylish friend of mine has a new baby, so she's kind of busy. :) My other friends that I'm thinking of right now hate shopping as much as I do! Hahahaha.

[derby378]

21. Ever try Chico's?

Ginny loves that place. If full price is a stretch, there's a Chico's outlet at Grapevine Mills - she's been able to find some great ensembles for very reasonable prices.

My game plan for you is to find the mall entrance closest to Chico's, walk in, find Chico's, find your stuff, pay the cashier, walk out. I'm pretty sure they'll have some thing that catches your eye.

And no, you're not fat. I'm fat. I'm a freakin' bulwark during gale-force windstorms. :rofl:

[crispini]

23. Hey, homie, got your call, just a bit too late yesterday to call back.

Good job at the meeting! I think you definitely made the right call by withdrawing the third resolution. Two out of three isn't bad, and when the whole thing started to go off the rails it was better to just give up. Gordon wasn't doing you any favors by trying to push it through on the same day, but oh well.

Thanks, I'll have to try Chico's. :D

[derby378]

43. Thanks!

Yeah, the hat trick would have been nice, but I knew the third resolution would stir up a little dust - I didn't know it was going to be that much of a donnybrook.

But Howard Dean gets some mad props from the DCDP, and we're encouraging our DA Craig Watkins to keep on keepin' on, so that's pretty cool.

:hi:

[Chan790]

25. Hire me!

I love the mall. I love shopping and fashion; I have great business-dress taste. (Kind of rare for a guy.) I love to get one-over on the deal-shopping too...I've been known skulk along in the mall with 15 different bags because I'll go store-to-store and buy only the loss-leaders and clearance. $15 pair of shoes here, $200 clearance-rack designer suit there, $20 blouse, some complementing cheap-and-funky jewelry from Claire's or some handcrafting artisan...viola! Designer outfit for $250. (The secret is in piece-assembly anyways...a woman (or anybody...though the actual items would be different) can get away with only owning two suits, 8 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, 1 nice dress and a boxful of neat accessories if one knows how to combine them in different ways to create 20-50 different "looks" or outfits.)

Seriously, with the right information (needs, size) and a decent budget, I could get you a great wardrobe. I've got all of 5th Ave. and virtually every major department store at my disposal.

I'd love to be a freelance personal shopper. Most personal shoppers work for the store and get paid for up-selling and on-commission. I think there's a better way.

Seriously, you've just given me a great business idea...Thanks! I know 100s of women and men who:

• Hate clothes shopping.
• Hate using entire their day-off standing in checkout lines.
• Hate trying to find something in their size.(I'm a 44" waist, 32" length in pants and a slim-cut XLT top so I can empathize.)
• Have poor image self-esteem. (I don't believe in bad taste. I do know that there are people who just give up because they think they'll never look "good".)
• Just don't want to be bothered.
• Want to be trendy without the work.
• 
  

[crispini]

29. If you were local, I'd hire you in a heart beat.

Although, you know, for this kind of thing, being NY based might be better. :D I think you have a good idea there! You might even be able to do some of this sort of thing over the 'net, actually-- have your clients send pictures to you, and measurements, and descriptions of what they like. And actually, even good accessories and how to use them would be useful as well.

I actually have come up with some clothes "rules" that work for me. Well, sort of:

- I only do black and gray and don't venture over into brown. Reason? I travel a lot and can only carry one pair of shoes. It's a shame, I miss brown, but right now I think I have to get the black side of the wardrobe built up before I can go over to brown. Other colors? Must go with black. I can get by a whole week on 2 pairs of black pants and various tops.
- I do like big chunky bracelets but I wind up taking them off a LOT because of typing on laptops. Big chunky earrings, I don't do, because I'm on the phone a lot and they annoy me. I also like big chunky necklaces. I wouldn't know what to do with a scarf if it killed me. (heh. imagine the scarf leaping off the rack and attacking. GAHHH NO GET IT OFF! heheheh). I could really use a tutorial on accessorizing, other than jewelry. Your whole combination idea? Sounds great, but I wouldn't know where to begin.
- I keep everything very simple. NO FRILLY SHIT. I can't stand that stuff.

You know, you really have an idea going here. I actually really like buying things that are more expensive, high quality, stuff, but I just don't have the patience to do the advanced clothes-stalking that you do in order to get good bargains. This is very intriguing!

[Lyric]

26. I know, and I agree completely.

The 3-million-stores-Not-For-You thing pisses me off the most. What's worse is that you can't automatically identify a lot of those from the outside; you have to go inside and rummage through the racks before you realize that nothing is larger than a size 8, and you've not only just wasted 10 minutes, but you've also embarrassed yourself thoroughly by even going inside; you just know that the Paris-Hilton-clone sales clerks are all giggling and tittering at the fat woman who dared to enter THEIR domain.

They should be forced to post signs outside that say, in huge letters, "We carry no sizes larger than 8."

:grr:

[Chan790]

27. There was a store back in CT called 2*4*6*.

I never did decide if that was helpful (to name their store after the only 3 sizes they carried) or just snotty (like "don't bother even entering, you lard-assed average-sized woman who doesn't starve herself and jog 15 miles daily.") In a victory for normal people everywhere, they went out of business quickly enough.

I'd probably have had a stronger opinion if I were female and depending on whether or not I was a size 2, 4 or 6. I did find the premise of only stocking clothes for women who were thinner than average to be tacky in-and-of-itself.

[lildreamer316]

31. Yep,we have one called 3*6*9.

Hint muthafkn hint.
Well, at least they are clear about it.

[crispini]

30. WORD!

I completely, totally agree! :hug:

[Iggo]

28. I love the mall.

But I'm a people watcher. And that's where the people are.

[Tikki]

32. I, also, hate the mall....

You have to parade down a corridor to get to any shop...I get that dissociative
disorder wandering around those places...so I never go alone. I would end up
falling off the second story balcony without someone to hang on to.

I end up comparing all the designer clothes at the mall to the cute and classic
designer clothes I get at the thrift stores. Yeah, maybe the thrift store clothes are a season
or a decade or so behind..still really cute, though.

Sometimes we have to go to the knife store...that is at the mall.


Tikki

[Initech]

33. Fuck the malls!

Although mega-department stores aren't that much better. I went to Frys to buy a new wireless router and printer and I felt the same way. :puke:

[mwooldri]

36. It looks like the "malls" are closing down...

... at least round here they seem to be dying.

Burlington, NC has a mall that's pretty much dead. Had a Belks, JC Penney, Goodys, Sears, and a whole bunch of other stores. Now Sears is the only main anchor left... Belks and JC Penney went away to a big open air mall a couple of miles away, and Goodys is no more. If Sears/K-Mart are looking to cut budgets they could just well pull out of the mall, and re-brand the nearby ex-Super K-Mart (now a Big K-Mart) as a Sears, losing even more jobs in the process.

[barb162]

37. Here's what I do;

I'll go to one anchor store and park near it off hours when there is plenty of parking close. Try to find the item you want. Rather than walk through the whole damn place if you can't find the items(s) I will get back in my car and park closest to the next major anchor dept. store and try to find it there. Then I avoid that whole middle part of the mall where people walk around like zombies. I find the classier the store, the fewer glazed eyed zombies are in it. The stores in the middle of the malls seem to be devoted to teenager rather than professional clothes.

[lunatica]

38. Hey! I hear ya on all your points!

I had that same visceral reaction way back in 1980s when I worked in retail and found out just how incredibly mind-warpingly manipulative the fashion industry is. I worked at The Limited where we were pressured to sell an entire outfit to women and teens by dragging out belts and watches and hair accessories and earrings and socks and promote the 'layered look'. All to sell as much as possible in each transaction. And their clothing was used widely in sitcoms and movies which made them very popular. Example, remember the movie Fatal Attraction? All the women as well as the daughter were dressed in clothes from The Limited. That was invariably a huge promotional ploy for the store and it worked.

The Limited went on to open Superstores where they sold children's clothes to grade schoolers complete with short little rounders with smaller hangers just the right size for their targeted customers. They started manipulating them very young. Now it's normal as everything is a name brand now, from the clothes to the backpacks to every item of clothing and toys children get.

[Zavulon]

39. It's not the mall I hate, it's the teen-and-under crowd that occupies it.

They're loud, they're dressed like assholes with their baggy half-pants and sideways ball caps, and they look / act like idiots.

Before anyone starts in on me, I'm not saying I hate kids overall, just the ones that habitually hang out in malls.

[Pharlo]

40. I don't mind the mall, it's the crowds I don't care for.

I go on 'off' times so the crowds are light, park at one end, and begin my campaign. First, before you leave home, know what you want. Meander through the mall, just looking - note prices, sales, what is available in your 'target purchase' criterion, color and size. Once you've made your way through the mall (assuming you didn't get lost in the book store and look up and realize "DAMN, IT'S CLOSING TIME!!)you can begin purchasing items. If you're going to hit the food court or look at anything else, do it BEFORE making a purchase. Now, go back and get the items you noted on your way through. That way, you're not lugging purchases all through the mall, or finding the same - or similar - item at a different store then have to take the time to go back and exchange it.

If the walking affects your back, you may not want to do it this way, but I found it to actually be the best bet.

Also, if you're dealing with black shoes, you can expand your black, gray combination to include dark blue. Just a suggestion.

I hit the malls once a year at Christmas. As long as I know what I'm looking for this works fantastic. It's when I haven't got a clue, I have problems.

Anyways, best of luck on your shopping expedition........Congrats on the new job! Hope you really enjoy it.

[crispini]

42. Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely try the dark blue.

As long as it goes with black shoes, I'm cool. and it's a good idea, too, to just sort of scout things out first. :D

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

41. I loves the malls

especially the food courts. Those are just awesome!

:hi:

:rofl:

[deepthought42]

44. I hate the customers...

working retail would be great if it weren't for the customers. ;)

"What year are the calendars for?" "Are you sure they're for 2009?" "Where are your calendars?" "What do the calendars look like?"

I was out at the calendar kiosk alot over the stupid-ass holiday season. Can you tell? I got a lot read out there though.

I work at a bookstore, and being a bookworm I like it and that's where most of my money is spent anyway. I hate shopping for clothes and stuff.

[Lethe]

45. i fuckin' hate the mail too

Jesus christ on a cracker! All they send me are Pottery Barn catalogs and bills i've already remitted.