Keep the Aspidistra Flying
This past Saturday, i did something i thought i would never do.
Saturday was "Community Day" at Carson Pirie Scott: for a five dollar donation that goes to local non-profits, you received a book of six coupons each for 20% off most store merchandise. Since i was at a participating non-profit on Saturday, as i am most Saturday's, i was able to acquire a coupon book directly from the source for a mere three dollars.
Now, whenever i encounter the retail industry, as all of us must do from time to time, i run into extraordinary difficulties deciding whether or not to purchase a particular item. There are several criteria for deciding these issues: do i want it? do i need it? does it have functional utility? does it have marginal utility? is it unique? can i afford it? am i trying to acquire objects in some futile attempt to compensate for emotional deficiencies? The criteria are clear enough, but the answers to these questions i always find to be so elusive. On Saturday, charitable coupons in hand, i dove right in. Sure, i equivocated a bit, but ultimately i shopped according to (somewhat mitigated) impulse. I bought two pairs of sunglasses: an amber tinted pair for casual dress and a black pair for... less informal dress. I bought an umbrella to replace the one i lost a week ago, a birthday gift for my mom, a sort of sport jacket but really it's a jacket jacket thing that i have no use for presently, and a pair of $90 dollar jeans. I remember when the whole Girbaud craze began when i was in High School or maybe before, and i couldn't believe that anyone would pay $80 for a pair of Girbaud jeans. But those jeans were ugly, and these by Kenneth Cole are unequivocally the most perfect pair of jeans i have ever owned. So have i now become what in my youth i once despised? I indulged my vanity at a cost of more than $200. And i still don't know if i satisfied all the retail criteria.
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