Clearance is the Stuff Nobody Wanted

Day 3, continued

Yesterday I also ventured to my closest mall which happens to be an outlet mall. I'm not sure which cosmic forces aligned to plunk an OULET mall in my backyard, but that's what we have. My addiction to sales, particularly clearance sales, is easily fed here where on any given day, a "fix" can be bought for a few dollars. Clearance is my kryptonite.

I stopped in the the Lord and Taylor outlet store. It's well known that outlet stores contain an irresistible combination of the stuff nobody wanted and poorer quality imitations of the stuff everyone bought in the regular store. Surely there would be a dress here, overlooked by the many, many shoppers before me, with perfect style and good quality. I felt a definite buzz in the store and spotted very long lines for the cashiers. The little hairs on my neck stood up. What's going on here? I narrowed my eyes, gazed around and realized that nearly everything in the store was marked down to $9.99. Seriously. Dresses, suits, Michael Kors sportswear.  Sequins, sparkles, faux-fur, all $9.99. Looked like an inventory reduction was taking place. 

My breathing quickened, my palms got sweaty, my eyes became darty. The customers in line were positively LOADED with stuff. Panic set in. What can I get??? But I am stronger now so I calmed myself and casually browsed. How could it be that there was an entire rack of a particular dress, originally priced at $198, now $9.99?  If nobody bought the dress in a regular store, how good could it be? More browsing and more weird clothes. More beat up, ripped, stained clothes. More styles that nobody wanted. There is perhaps a little hope for those who wear a size 2, but not average sized women. I am positive that last year, I would have been in that long checkout line. This year, I walked away.

Because I was forced to really identify and live with my very favorite clothes for the year, I know that almost nothing came from a clearance sale. Maybe 25% off. Experience told me that I could load up with $9.99 clothing and very likely NONE would become one of my favorites. And I would have spent a couple of hours sifting through the racks. And spent more money than one favorite item might cost. Progress? I think yes.