Friday, November 07, 2008

Shopping on the other side of the aisle

I love shopping at Kohls. Their clearance section is big, low priced and usually still has some must have buys. Generally I shop for me, for clothes at the end of January, when the sales are really big. But this week, a flyer came in the mail with an additional 30% off all prices, even clearance. I was sold, and squeezed in a trip early Wednesday morning.

On autopilot I made a bee line for the Young Woman's clearance section, skipping Juniors, for one daughter and 7-16 for the other two. After all it's okay for a mommy to do some mommy shopping. What I found was nothing. Oh sure there were clothes there, but not my style, not my shape, nothing. I circled the racks. How could these tried and true let me down? I had visions of new jeans, new chinos, maybe a new shirt: all with an extra 30% taken off the bill. If I had scored, they would be practically writing me a check to take the items out of the store. Let down I shopped for the girls.

One needed tights for the school play, and another a white tshirt for a tie dying party. The tights were easy, but the shirt proved problematic. What to chose? A hanes white t from the Men's Department or a more fashionable white t from Juniors. I wandered, and in the end it was the hip white all cotton fashion t in juniors, on clearance and with the additional 30% that scored a steal.

One last loop of the store, (after all I hadn't seen housewares yet) and then off to the register. As I passed the Jewelry Department and the Vera Wang section (which looks great on the display and not on me) I spotted Womens, and not the Young Womans section I've shopped for years. They had jeans, on sale, chinos on clearance, shirts too. I hestitated. Usually I shopped Womens for Christmas presents for my Mom and Aunt. Was it time for me to cross the aisle?

I'd give a look. After all, maybe I would find a good buy for a Christmas present. One rack into the department and I found jeans made for me, my body style. And the chinos laid out next door, with their wider legs, were calling me name. Twenty minutes later I walked out with two bags full; some for me, some of the girls, some for others. All for an extra 30% off the already low clearance prices.

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