Confessions of a Retail Shopaholic
In a scene from Gilmore Girls, Rory and Lorelei are trying to convince Emily Gilmore of the wonders of the internet. They start by telling her all about online shopping, and, with a puzzled look on her face, she begins to question them about the whole concept. “But going to a nice store is half the fun of shopping,” she says. “I like being greeted at the door and the bustle of people and the shoes and clothes all lined up nice and pretty.”
Emily Gilmore, in all her infinite wisdom, summed up my feelings quite nicely. I still remember the first time I went into a department store with my mom, and I was small enough that I could fit between the dress racks and remain perfectly hidden while the silky materials pressed against my face. I loved choosing every single color of Mary Jane shoes to try on, and with deliberate precision, my mom and I would examine them in the full length mirror and choose which color to add to my already excessive collection. I would help her pick what to buy, and try on sunglasses while she was at the register, and then we’d head to lunch just the two of us. I may be taller now, and I may be buying different things, but our ritual is still exactly the same.
When I was that small, retail shopping was still king. The number of malls was increasing steadily—according to The Atlantic the number of malls in the United States grew more than twice as fast as the population did between 1970 and 2015. Now, retail shopping has most certainly taken a backseat to mobile shopping, with brands like Macy’s, J.C. Penney, and BCBG announcing significant brick and mortar store closures. At the same time, online shopping is on the rise, with mobile commerce growing from two percent of digital spending to 20 percent.
However, once again, Emily Gilmore perfectly articulated my nuanced feelings about this subject when she asked Rory and Lorelei what they do if their online purchases don’t fit. They tell her they normally forget to mail it back, to which Emily responds, “so you’re just out the money? I don’t get it.”
Honestly, Emily, I don’t get it either. I always forget to return online purchases, and find them in the back of my closet months later, long after the time I’m allowed to return them. I’ve bought dresses for high school dances, thinking they were gorgeous because the model looked perfect in them, only to realize that it was only because she’s a size 00, and she’d look perfect in a potato sack. Mostly, online shopping is just missing a quintessential part of fashion to me. Socialness, and the visceral feeling of the fabrics on my fingers. The ability to try everything on all together, and walk around in it. Shopping in a store pushes me out of my fashion comfort zone because there is no harm in just trying something on that I wouldn’t normally wear. With online shopping, because of the hassle of returning everything, I only buy things that I know I like, meaning I buy variations on the same type of shirts, pants, and shoes.
I understand that e-commerce isn’t going anywhere, and that it may be the future, but I just think there must be a way to re-incorporate that essential quality of a brick and mortar store which has somehow gotten lost in all the shuffle. Maybe it looks something like Nordstrom’s new store in West Hollywood called Nordstrom local, which allows shoppers to order a selection of items online to the store and then try them on in person.
All I am saying is that, while I love Amazon as much as the next person, a part of me is already grieving what many people are calling the death of retail.