Whatever happened to a good bargain?So many aphorisms come to mind- the more things change, the more they stay the same. The older I get the smarter my mother becomes. The times they are a changin’. Well, in my childhood days in New Jersey my mother and I would frequent Loehmann’s. It seemed like a smart choice back then; since I now visit the original 7th avenue store and she no longer travels to the Rt 4 outpost in Jersey, I can’t help but wonder: is she indeed getting smarter?
What I do know is that things are surely not staying the same. The onslaught of multiple Century 21’s, express buses to Woodbury Commons, brand labels created exclusively for the outlet stores, lead me to believe that there is simply not enough bargain to go around. I’m no economist, but simple supply and demand tells me that there is a limited supply of overstock, slightly damaged merch and last season’s styles to fill all these “discount” shelves.
Furthermore, with my mother’s New Jersey twang ringing in my head, (which, when I imitate her, sounds strikingly like my Mike Bloomberg rendition as well as my mother-in-law to be’s Boca-isms), I ask “this is such a bah-gain?!?!” when grabbing some Marc Jacobs schmata, still priced in the triple digits. Last time I checked, ruffles, mismatched buttons and small tears were passe, no?
A few examples:
I enter the Space outlet at Woodbury- how is an orange Prada bag at $600.00 any more of a bargain than one in black at $900.00?
Tory Burch flats at the eponymously named “discount” shop- only about 10% cheaper than at Bloomies or Saks? The gasoline to the outlets is worth more than this bargain.
At Bloomingdales, I notice a Theory blazer on sale. With the store’s marked down price, and my coupon, it’s cheaper than any outlet. And they have every size imaginable. Come to think of it, it’s quite comforting to find everything I’m looking for– the right color, multiple sizes, no damaged goods. Is the world changing? Or am I just growing up? Maybe my mother is right– sometimes, you just want what you want.
Perhaps it’s me. I once considered myself a panopticon in the discount hunters’ universe. Am I crashing the wrong party? Do I need to visit the garment district? Chinatown? Foreign Markets? Is discount the new rip-off? Is my mother Einstein?
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