Shopping Tips Online

I love shoes. Some people might call it an obsession. Heels, flats, boots, thongs, mary janes, tennis shoes, hiking boots, ballerinas, mules, pumps, my awesome Chuck Taylor® Converse All Stars – you name them, I love them. I have quite a selection.

But here’s the thing:

I keep all my shoes in their original boxes.

Despite the ribbing I have taken about this over the years, I consider this one of my best time-, space- and money-saving tips.

• It saves time. Years ago, like a lot of people, I threw my shoes on the floor of my closet, and lost precious time every morning trying to locate two shoes that matched.
• It saves space. Boxes stack easily on a closet shelf or the floor if need be. You can also stack by style, color and season.
• It saves money. That may seem like a stretch, but think about it. Taking care of your shoes keeps them newer looking longer. They keep from getting scuffed because they are safe in their boxes. Stuffing the toes with tissue helps absorb any oils that can eventually cause the insoles to deteriorate.

If for some reason a box breaks down and I’m forced to throw it away, I replace it with a clear plastic shoe box with a lid. Although I usually remember what shoes came in what box, I try to stack the boxes with the label side out, which frequently has an illustration of the shoes, so that makes it easy for me to scan for the pair I want. I personally like the box system better than hanging shoe bags. I have tried them and find that they take up too much hanging space in my closet, and my shoes tended to get scuffed or squashed too easily.

I have a passion for my shoes, and I want to keep them looking good as long as I can. I encourage you to try this and see if it doesn’t help you save time, space and money in the long run!

Shopping, Shoes, Chuck Taylors, Money Savers, Time Savers

The weather here has been miserable. Gray skies. Frequent, persistent preciptation. Uncomfortable temps. These days I am struggling to really care what I put on my body, so I tend to reach for the same three or four sweaters and jeans as my standard “I’m sick of winter” uniform.

So, to fight the end of winter blues, I have been looking for a few things to add to my wardrobe for spring. My best source for seasonal trend information has always been Style Bakery, where they recently posted the top ten trends for Spring. This year, like last year, there is a nautical trend emerging.

I love this whole yacht club look, with nautical stripes on everything. So, although it was a bit of a splurge for me (on sale with an extra 20% off it was $23), I clicked up this little boatneck sweater from J.Crew. It is a cotton and cashmere blend, and it comes in three colors: red/white, navy/white and black/white. As opposed to the typical navy/white stripe, I went with the black/white, shown here. I also ordered it a size larger than normal, because I want that little bit of slouch that seems like I borrowed the sweater from my boyfriend who’s in the French navy.

I will probably wear this sweater with jeans while the weather is still cool-ish, and then with white jeans later on. It would also look cute with a little flippy white skirt. To avoid looking too costume-y, I would avoid doing all nautical head to toe.

Check out Style Bakery’s recommendations, then do a little clicking yourself. It will be Spring before we know it!

J.Crew, Nautical Trend, Sweater

I am very fortunate to be one of those people who never really has a lot of trouble sleeping. For whatever reason, I lay down, turn off the light and zzzz, I’m out. But, according to a National Sleep Foundation’s 2007 Sleep in America poll, over two-thirds of women frequently have sleeping problems.

As a response to this fact,
Simmons Beautyrest® has a couple of brochures designed to help women shop for and select the right mattress for them. They are available at their website as two downloadable PDFs. One is called “A Girl’s Guide to Mattress Shopping,” and the other is “A Woman’s Guide to Mattress Shopping.” The “Girl’s Guide” is intended for the first time mattress shopper, while the “Woman’s Guide” is more in-depth, and is for women who have experience shopping for sleep sets. I checked them both out, and I recommend the Woman’s Guide because it contains essentially the same information as the Girl’s Guide, but has a few extra tidbits of information that I think could help anyone. Both brochures have some generalized advice about getting a better night’s sleep, and suggestions and tips for shopping for mattresses.

Regardless of whether you do experience sleep problems, I think these two guides have some good advice for when it’s time to replace the old mattress and box springs, regardless of the brand name.

Mattress Shopping, Simmons, Beautyrest, Sleep Sets, Sleep Studies

I am a list person. I make grocery lists, even if it just contains a few items, because I have a tendency to forget even the simple stuff like milk if it’s not written down.

Now there is a new study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, that shows that making lists actually leads to more impulse buying. A Duke University study has shown that when we make lists based on memory, we tend to shop off the list, making less-than-great choices.

“We find that consumers who must generate options from memory are more likely to select fun, hedonistic, and sinful options over sensible options or ‘appropriate’ options,” Yuval Rottenstreich of Duke University said in a statement.

Here’s my take on this.

I have always told people that list-making is a good thing. It keeps us from forgetting, and is supposed to keep us from blowing the budget on unnecessary items. I will admit it, though. I do shop off the list frequently. I use both “memory-based” and “stimulus-based” decision-making – I buy both what I have on the list as well as things I see in the store. Is there anything wrong with that? Okay, if what you have on the list is milk, eggs and bread to feed your kids and you end up buying Kool-aid, cookies and potato chips instead, they may have a point. Like anything, I think it has more to do with the person making the list and their impulse control than the list-making itself.

Lists, Grocery Shopping, Making Grocery Lists

Macy’s recently announced that their associates will be required to wear basic black, and will be able to take advantage of additional discounts on black clothing. There will be opportunity to personalize the outfit with bits of color. Women can wear a colorful blouse or accessories, and men can wear a colored tie. Most articles I have read always follow that news with stories of employees of other companies who sued because they were “pressured” into buying and wearing the house brand. Most were settled, with employers giving employees a set amount of money to purchase clothing to wear to work.

Here’s my take on this.

Call me old fashioned, but I think a dress code is a good idea for a few reasons.

1. I have wandered around department stores searching for an associate and, except in the dead of winter, it’s tough to tell the shopppers from the workers. This makes it easier for me to find someone to help me, which could improve my shopping experience.

2. Professionally-dressed associates reflect well on the company as a whole. Think about the staff in an elegant restaurant – if they were wearing jeans and concert tees, would the atmosphere be reflective of the menu?

3. Some people need a little help. I am sure Macy’s staff are more aware of fashion and what looks good than some stores’ associates, but even then some people just need a bit of guidance. A dress code brings the not-so-fashionable up to the same level as the oh-so-fashionables.

Dress Code, Macy’s

Day to day frustrations are a common experience. I don’t know many people that don’t get fed up with hitting that particular red light or winding up trapped in the fast food drive through chute with no way out and only five minutes left to get back to the office. It’s normal. Shopping, of course, has its own set of frustrations. Here is one that I experienced just yesterday that I need to share.

An employee at a popular clothing retailer (Old Navy) rang up my sale and then literally WADDED my things up and SHOVED them in a bag. Hangers and all. Didn’t even TRY to fold them in any way, shape or form. This meant that everything in the bag was a rumpled mess by the time I got home. I don’t expect her to put on a show of folding the clothes and gently placing them in tissue or anything, but I guess I do expect her to realize that I have just spent my money on these items and I’m excited about them. In my mind that deserves a little respect.

So why am I bringing this up?

Retailers are all on a “customer experience” bandwagon. Creating positive relationship between the brand and the consumer at every touchpoint. That means everywhere I come into contact with their brand – TV, online, in-store, catalog, phone – they want me to walk away with a warm fuzzy feeling about them. If at any of those touchpoints the experience is not good, the relationship breaks down and they risk losing my dollars.

Once you start paying attention to the touchpoints, you can see for yourself where retailers are breaking down. And in my experience it is at the store level. For whatever reason, the lofty goals and initiatives of the corporate headquarters rarely trickle down to the employees standing at the registers making the sale.

Disappointing Interenet shopping experiences are usually overlooked (unless they are really bad) because there is no human interaction. It might be frustrating, but it’s not personal. When I am standing across a counter from an employee who clearly doesn’t give a damn, I walk away feeling like they don’t give a damn about me or my business. And it’s just a small step to believing that if she doesn’t care, then neither does the brand. It’s as simple as that.

Shopping Experience, Customer Experience, Old Navy

Our poor Gap. They have really been through the wringer the past few months. After a long stretch of falling sales there were loads of changes at the executive level, and even rumours of selling the failing brand, and tons and tons of speculation and opinion about what Gap should do to recover. Mainly most of us just thought Gap had lost sight of who their real customers are, and changed their product line to appeal to…well, who? We certainly weren’t sure.

Now Gap has announced a new television spot set to air March 8 through April 4. The ad features Claire Danes and Patrick Wilson in a little dance number to the song “Anything you can do I can do better.” It’s described as a cute little “dance off” wherein Danes literally dances the khakis off of Wilson. Cute, right?

Here’s my take on this.

I have not seen the spot, but my first thought is FINALLY. Remember the heyday of Gap commercials? When relevant celebrites wore the iconic clothing and you thought – hell yes, I want to look like that. The clothing was classic, almost nostalgic, and very, very cool. Using these two celebs may be helping to redefine Gap’s true demographic – Danes is 28, and Wilson is 34. They are a little quirky, but have a sophistication that goes beyond the typical trashy celebrity.

It looks to me as if someone at Gap has been listening when we’ve all been screaming, “get back to what you’re good at and get rid of the weird stuff!”

I am pleased, and surprised. I’m anxious to see the spot to see if it lives up to my expectations. Meanwhile I’m going on over to Gap to check out these new “boyfriend” khakis everyone’s talking about!

Gap, Gap Commercials, Claire Danes, Patrick Wilson

I spend a lot of time browsing for products online, and sometimes wish the experience were more like shopping in a real department store, where I could take a left at the lingere and end up in the housewares department. That’s the idea behind MYBIGSTORES.COM.

Described as an “online catalog” MYBIGSTORES.COM has gathered and grouped a collection of over 250 online retailers into quite a variety of common “departments” or categories. Those categories, similar to a department store, include apparel and accessories, beauty and health, computers, electronics, toys and kids, flowers and gifts, video games and more. These aren’t little unknown retailers, either, they are the big names like Macy’s, Wal-Mart, Nordstom, Target and lots more.

Here’s my take on this.

I did a little clicking around MYBIGSTORES.COM and found it to be easy to use. The subcategories have retailers in alphabetical order, with current sales and promotions listed so you can quickly scan for the stores and/or deals you are interested in. One thing I appreciated was that, although I am familiar with lots of these retailers, there were a few stores that caught my eye that I hadn’t heard of before. I may have run across them accidentally, but this was a way for me to be introduced to something new without spending a ton of time searching. Overall I think this is a good idea. It’s not revolutionary – I have run across similar sites before. But it is clean, simple to use, up to date, and a timesaver for people like me who spend a lot of time browsing the Internet. Check it out.

Online Shopping, Department Store, MYBIGSTORES.COM, Sales, Promotions, Coupon Codes

Irish or not, 96.3 million people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The majority of people (82.4%) will put on something green, and then celebrate in a bar or restaurant (24.7%), and most likely raise their glasses with an Irish drink or some tasty green beer. Last year it was forecast that Americans would spend around $2.7 billion on St. Paddy’s day, which was up from only $1.94 billion in ‘05.*

If you’re going to spring for something fun for St. Patrick’s day, but you don’t want to spend your entire pot ‘o gold, here are a couple of ideas.

Old Navy has a field of green tees, but I particularly like these cute green flip flops. Retail was $4.50, but they’re on sale online for $2.50. Buy a pair for everyone at your party – how cute would that be!?

If you’re throwing your own party, pick up a dozen of these fun and silly hurricane glasses from Oriental Trading Company. They’re regularly $17.95 per dozen, but they’re on sale for a little over a buck apiece, $12.99. While you’re there, grab some “pot of gold” confetti. A 2 oz. package is only $2.95.

If you look around, you’ll see that it’s easy to celebrate St. Patrick’s day without spendin’ too much ‘o the green.

*Source: National Retail Federation

St. Patrick’s Day, Green, Pot of Gold

The “M by Madonna” line is set to hit H&M stores this month. The company’s head designer, Margareta van den Bosch, worked with the material girl to design a new line of apparel and accessories. Apparently Madonna did much more than just lend her name to the line, the company reports that she was involved in the entire process, down to the small details.

‘M by Madonna’ is primarily in neutral palettes including white, black, khaki and grey. Fabrics vary from silk, wool, viscose jersey and body-sculpting lycra. The entire line is embellished with a small ‘M’ logo on linings, zippers and buttons. In addition the ‘M by Madonna’ look includes a complete line of accessories from sunglasses, party bags and clutches and even skinny leather belts.

Here’s my take on this.

I have never been hell bent on dressing like Madonna, but I could pretty easily see myself wearing these clothes. From what I have seen of the line, it does have a very sleek, sophisticated vibe that has a certain appeal for me. I like that the palette is simple – for me that means it will be more versatile with things I already own.

H&M styles are generally designed for people a lot younger than me, so I am not sure how this will fly with the typical H&M shopper. But, H&M made a smart move by choosing a style icon to back the line instead of using a Big Designer name. Even if the styles seem a bit more mature, the younger group may be drawn to it simply because it is “M by Madonna.”

Madonna, H&M, M by Madonna