Thursday, November 8, 2007

Catolog Shopping

Whenever people want to commiserate with me about moving to a small town, it's always the shopping that they bring up. "Oh, don't you miss the mall?" This is a surprisingly big factor in people's choice of local. People need their Wal-Mart, JC Penney, and Target. This I don't get. To me the mall is a fairly undesirable place you endure only to get cool stuff. With all the great delivery options out there, it seems to me that online shopping is the way to go. They'll even send you catalogs just in case you forgot about all the neat things you didn't know you needed. This is the major downside of online shopping. As you buy, the catalogs start multiplying in your mailbox. Today, I got this bizarro catalog in the mail called Free People.

I've never even heard of this place, but perusing the catalog taught me a lot about what I can only assume is Tibet. Like, it's warm enough to sit in your tent fashioned from designer sheets and quilts wearing your underwear, but not quite warm enough to do it without a hat.

Also, the hip thing is to wear your child's winter mitten/hat ensemble over your disco minidress when you're off to do heavy manual labor in your work boots. Tibet must be a fascinating place. (Okay, I do realize that it's run by the same people that run my beloved Anthro, but I can still make fun).

Uberinformed husband of mine found this service you can supposedly use to stop the mailings. So far we've requested to stop Anthropologie, Athleta, Sundance, Garnet Hill and many, many more. In actuality I'm not sure we've stopped anything. We still get like 6 Victoria Secret catalogs weekly (two copies of each issue). The problem is that they're smarter than we are. The other day I returned an ill-fitting pair of shorts to Athleta only to have the replacement pair come with two more catalogs from that company. Also, even iron-willed Keith is not strong enough to overcome the temptation of the beautiful catalogs. As I opened the browser to start this blog, this is what I saw. What can you do?

4 comments:

jgautrea said...

Keith is busted! His affinity for chino pants is now known the world at large. Thanks, Shaleah, for using blogs for what they are for: embarrassing other people.
I understand Keith might not be embarrassed (I like those pants, too), but I digress.
Kat is in Chicago, so I will respond for her: Why would you cancel the Anthro catalog?
We also get the Free People catalog. Sometimes, while Kat looks at the catalogs I create little playlets (either aloud or in my mind) that explain what is going on. Often, a nice looking woman is pulling on her sweater, or drinking a venti latte or lazing on a couch. Sometimes, she is trying to be noticed, or not to be noticed, or be noticed by the fact she is trying not to be noticed. Often, there is a lot going on.
This is getting quite long, but I am avoiding preparing for my Torts practice exam. I will probably regret this.
Lastly, I enjoyed the post.

Jenn said...

Silly girl, didn't your mother tell you that 90% of heat loss is through your head, not your legs. Of course, you wear a hat before you put on pants.

I know you are clever enuf to simply call & have the companies remove you from their lists. Which makes me suspect that you actually enjoy the glossy-photo shopping.

keith said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

This blog is great! Thanks for your hard work on it.