Saturday Special

(Link at left)
~Your Brand is Showing!~

1. Food: Do you buy brand names or go for the cheaper store name brand?

Depends on the food in question. I usually go with the brand because the quality and packaging of store/generic items can be so variable. And, frankly, because I can afford to spend the extra 8 cents on the brand. There have been MANY many years where I couldn't justify doing that.

2. Clothes: Wear designer jeans/slacks with a brand name or regular department store jeans/slacks?

There isn't a department store nearby, except Kohl's, and I do like their clothes. Brand name/schmand name. My issue is definitely "do they fit?" Also important, are they priced ridiculously, and is there music playing at 200 decibals in the store: if yes...'bye. Unless it's Hot Topic: that store makes me laugh, rather hyserically, even as horrible music blares through the speakers.

3. Handbags: Buy a designer bag or look for a less expensive copy?

...meh... I don't carry a purse. Haven't for over a year. And when I did, I bought them at K-Mart or Target.

4. Shoes: You got the drift, designer or a cheaper copy?

Famous Footwear or DSW, and the same criteria: do they fit? Are they priced right?

In reading this, I am reminded forcefully of shopping with my mom in my formative years. We shopped at Joslins, Penneys, Bakers, and Thom McAns. Mom looked down her nose at Kinneys, K-Mart and Payless Shoes. Dad wouldn't let us shop at "Monkey Wards" (I swear to God!), or Safeway; The Denver (which was always a little high-falutin' anyway) was off-limits after they cut up mom's store card one day. We walked a fine line between things that cost too much and things that were "junky." And of course there was that small event--when I was around ten years old--of Dad having to declare personal bankruptcy when his business tanked. We ate hamburger a lot those years, and I wore hand-me-downs and home-made clothes. I only minded the bad food, and the ugly stuff my mom made on the sewing machine. She couldn't make shoes, though, and that's probably where my shoe-mania comes from.

All of this probably goes a long way toward explaining my lack of interest in shopping as a hobby. It was so very fraught with potential faux pas that it wasn't really fun. And I totally internalized that.