Item: 1 LL Bean catalog
I have a huge weakness for catalogs. I guess I always have, actually. I used to love looking at the Sears Christmas catalog and making lists of what toys I wanted. Later on, I liked looking at the outfits in the juniors section of the JC Penney catalog.
Now, it's pretty much anything: clothes, furniture, cookware, camping equipment. Catalogs are hours of entertainment because they contain so many possibilities, and my imagination can run free without constraints such as price range or whether the dress even comes in my size. Also, I can look at a pair of shoes as long as I want without a person standing next to me waiting for me to make up my mind. I can consider something in a catalog for weeks before I might make a decision to buy it.
Catalog shopping is more of a danger to me than shopping in a store, for just this reason. If I've admired an outfit in a catalog long enough, it starts to feel like I need it. Once, when I was just out of college, my roommate was out for the evening and I ordered over US $300 worth of clothes from the J. Crew catalog. That might not sound like a lot, but I should point out that no way no how did I have that kind of money to spend on clothes. My roommate came home just when I was beginning to be horrified. When the delivery came, I kept a couple things and returned the rest. I haven't ever done such a thing since, but the temptation is always there.
Sometime soon there might not be such things as paper catalogs, because the entire world shops only online. I don't consider that a replacement, though, because I don't want to sit and look at a computer for that long, besides which online shopping is usually item by item, and oftentimes it's the context - the room layout, the combination of pieces into an outfit, that makes things interesting.
The World Cup started yesterday. I was up early to go hiking this morning and happened upon England versus Paraguay. I thought it was cool enough that I also turned on Argentina versus Cote d'Ivoire in Spanish on Univision this afternoon. I'll explain why I thought it was cool later.
Now, it's pretty much anything: clothes, furniture, cookware, camping equipment. Catalogs are hours of entertainment because they contain so many possibilities, and my imagination can run free without constraints such as price range or whether the dress even comes in my size. Also, I can look at a pair of shoes as long as I want without a person standing next to me waiting for me to make up my mind. I can consider something in a catalog for weeks before I might make a decision to buy it.
Catalog shopping is more of a danger to me than shopping in a store, for just this reason. If I've admired an outfit in a catalog long enough, it starts to feel like I need it. Once, when I was just out of college, my roommate was out for the evening and I ordered over US $300 worth of clothes from the J. Crew catalog. That might not sound like a lot, but I should point out that no way no how did I have that kind of money to spend on clothes. My roommate came home just when I was beginning to be horrified. When the delivery came, I kept a couple things and returned the rest. I haven't ever done such a thing since, but the temptation is always there.
Sometime soon there might not be such things as paper catalogs, because the entire world shops only online. I don't consider that a replacement, though, because I don't want to sit and look at a computer for that long, besides which online shopping is usually item by item, and oftentimes it's the context - the room layout, the combination of pieces into an outfit, that makes things interesting.
The World Cup started yesterday. I was up early to go hiking this morning and happened upon England versus Paraguay. I thought it was cool enough that I also turned on Argentina versus Cote d'Ivoire in Spanish on Univision this afternoon. I'll explain why I thought it was cool later.
posted by Karen at 8:25 PM
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