Tag: shopping

All In

Friday, December 20, 2024

Today is “ugly Christmas sweater day” at work. I’m unprepared because, in the first place, I mistakenly thought this was a day off work for me; in the second place, I wore my only ugly sweater last Friday, mistakenly thinking that was the official ugly sweater day, and wondering why others weren’t wearing noisy sweaters.

My ugly Christmas sweater is from last year’s Christmas selections. It’s a cautious sweater, neither particularly ugly nor attractive, and can sort of fit the bill. Some quick research taught me there is an official Ugly Sweater Day, the third Friday in December.

I searched for how to make my sweater uglier quickly this morning. I’d need a “microstitch gun,” which isn’t handy at home. Somehow, I’ll work this out, and one option would be using my glue gun to attach some of my Cockatoo’s shiny baubles to my not-yet-quite-ugly-enough sweater.

I grew up in a Jewish-oriented family without knowing ugly sweater routines. These days, however, working part-time in a retail store through Christmas has opened up more about this time of year for me.

The weeks leading up to Christmas are becoming tense from timelines for shopping, finding gifts, and selling. Those add up until everybody becomes weary. Ugly Christmas Sweaters are a fun celebration and an unconventional silly letting loose and enjoying the festive season.

Ugly Sweater Day reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously; it lets us express joy with a dose of humor. I will start preparing for next year by ordering a microstitch gun. I will get ready to participate today by taking some baubles from Peaches’ cage and going to look for my glue gun.

Dear Friends: Today, I’ll take photos and salute sweaters with creativity. Diana

Retail Rant

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

I was called to work on my day off yesterday, which was no surprise. The department store is shorthanded in workers and asks all its regulars to help above and beyond.

These days, the retail industry is in crisis. There are many confusing price cuts, much pushing for credit applications, incredibly complicated online competitions, and growing numbers of empty brick-and-mortar stores.

While I am working in the department store, its customers keep me aware of the confusion in navigating current retail processes. For example, they have learned to compare online and in-store prices and may enter an actual store to negotiate for the best price. Upon finding an item online that they want but that a physical store doesn’t stock, disappointed customers are essentially forced to shop online.

Price cutting is rampant, and nobody knows where that might go. Retailers must make profits, so price-cutting is an art; sale pricing is a game–a tease designed to draw would-be customers. All retailers are doing whatever’s needed to make buying quicker and easier, to attract customers.

Customers know all this, are highly aware and still purchasing like crazy. Retailers keep pushing sales and offering rewards as incentives. Meanwhile, buyers are struggling with debt from easy buying.

You get it because most of us overbuy readily available products. Nonetheless, retail must keep changing and solve the current burdens of disappearing storefronts, its hugest retailers competing mightily to keep and gain customers, and a central issue of pricing dancing with the unrest of inflation and interest rates.

Dear Friends: This commercial climate stresses a hard lesson of restraint. Diana