Shopping excursion

You may not believe me, but I haven’t purchased an item of clothing or shoes or a purse or anything since April. APRIL. Been buckling down, not spending frivolously, sticking to budgets, etc. But it’s getting old, fast. I need a shopping fix. So, I made a date a few Saturdays ago with a new friend, Sarah, to show me what Nelson has to offer for shopping.

It ain’t much. For those of you who come to visit, you’ll find the local “mall” to be an amusing description of what’s available. The local department store is nearly useless as it carries lesser quality items particularly in the clothing area. That leaves me to individual stores and boutiques, which we are fortunate to have in New Zealand since not everything is a conglomerate chain store (except for you, Banana Republic, I still love you).

In the city centre, a dangerously close 5 minute walk, there are a handful of boutiques and small stores that have quality clothing. Some are even based in New Zealand’s fashion scene, directly designer made and very cool. Then there are the everything-is-polyester and the everything-made-crappily-in-China stores, those are to be avoided.

[As an aside, I don’t intend to diss everything China makes as my point in this post and in a previous post. I don’t think the Chinese export crap all the time. What bothers me, and what I am railing against, are the low wages and the deplorable circumstances many Chinese workers are in mass producing crappy stuff for the Walmarts and the Warehouses of the world, both in the US and NZ. Of course, the problem is not just China either, as people in all countries want cheaply priced items and create the market for the stuff. I do think that I have found poorer quality items here in NZ than I did even in the US though. So I am jointly dissing the Walmarts/Warehouses AND the Chinese slave drivers. I won't shop there and support that type of industry. Just want to be clear about my remarks!!]

I discovered two very good shoe stores, and they have sales. Except my foot size has gone from a 10 to a 41, so I’m not sure what that’s about, but I hope it doesn’t translate to pants or dress sizes in the same way, I don’t think I could handle that . . . oh great, I’ve just learned that women’s dress sizes here are different, I do have to go up a number. DAMN.

All in all, if you visit, I’ll show you my favorite little boutique shops, but if you really want to go for it, join Don and me on our planned semi-annual trek to Christchurch or Wellington where the malls are more like malls (but still not really malls) and there are actual department stores and higher end items. That’ll be like two extra vacations per year for me!! In the meantime, I’ll have to find another outlet for my shopping energy, ie. you all get handknit scarves this year for Christmas!! :)