I hate the mall.
I have plenty of allergies. Dust, pollen, peanuts…and you know those people who claim they are “addicted to retail”? I am their opposite.
Flat out hate. Literally it puts me in a bad mood whenever I come close to it; know I’m going there, or worse have to sit around while someone is shopping.
And it’s not that I really hate shopping that much. It’s just that I hate the malls around here. They lack imagination. They lack originality. And the people are just disgusting.
I just love to look around when I’m there (which thankfully is on average less than once a month) and imagine all the financial standings of everyone around me. I like to think that at least 30% of the people I’m looking at are shopping with money that isn’t close to being theirs. The type that can only afford the minimum interest payment on their 24% APR Nordstrom’s/GAP/Banana Republic/etc. visas. Or less! And they think they’re getting somewhere.
These people talk as if they will die if they don’t get a certain style of jeans. Or the newest fall line, or this year’s hottest accessories. I have to admit - at the least they are keeping this capitalistic economy afloat. All the billions of dollars companies are spending on marketing to them is obviously working.
While living in
I still wear clothes from 6th grade. Back then, all the rage (at least from what I saw/what I wore) was to get things oversized. Guess what? All that buying of extra large clothing fits me now. And I’ll be the first to admit - I have more clothes than I need. But the only clothes I do buy? Shoes. When the soles wear down, or there is a hole in the shoe, it’s time for me to get new shoes. When was the last time I made some major purchases of clothing? April of 2005. More than 2 years ago. And what was I buying? Business casual for work. I didn’t have any. And my job required me to wear it. And more than half of my stuff that I have that is considered business casual is hand-me-downs from my dad. The other half? Christmas and past birthday presents. My parents are very good about buying me the necessities – underwear and socks. Since I’ve got what I need as far as clothing is concerned, I never feel the need to keep up with “style”.
This is all based on the fact that I’ve always thought that if someone is going to like me for my material possessions, then that’s probably not a relationship that will be lasting very long. However, I will admit that at times I do feel a bit “out of style”. But as soon as I see those price tags in the stores I’m reminded why I’m so cheap, and why I refuse to buy anything without analyzing the cost/benefit of the product. And most of the time, there is no benefit. I’m not trying to impress anyone right now, and really I shouldn’t have to (nor will I).
While waiting on a mall bench the last time I was there (and I suppose the main reason for this post) I heard a group of teenagers talking together as they were walking. They looked about 13 or 14, and the subject was cars.
One of them said, “Well, I want a BMW.”
“You can’t have a BMW – I wanted a BMW!” the other friend responded.
“Ok, well fine I guess I’ll just go for the Mercedes then”.
Seriously? I couldn’t believe it. I honestly think that there are just so many people out there like this. Maybe it’s just the kids? Naw, I think there’s more people out there like that. Anything to own the car of their dreams. Living with mom and dad at 27 and 3 maxed out credit cards in order to lease the latest 5 series. But they’re happy right? For their sake, I really hope so. I just wanted to stop every single one of them and ask them about their goals/plans for life. Ask them how they were doing in school (if they even cared about school) if they had a plan for higher education, and what they were going to do once they got out. How in the world they were going to make all this money so that they could afford those cars. Sure, they were probably just dreaming aloud, but since there was no laughter within the conversation I only have to assume that these kids really thought they would own these cars soon. For their sake, I am hoping that mommy and daddy won’t be so kind. In my opinion giving children everything they want sets them up for failure later. They’ll expect to just get things without actually working for them…
Maybe I’ve just learned to think a lot differently regarding material wealth than others out there. Or maybe I’m an early adopter to semi-minimalist ideals. There’s a certain point at which I look at people and realize that maybe they’ve got some major money backing them up. When I see exotic cars, classic cars, or just anything top of the line luxurious – I have to draw the line at that point. At some point a person doesn’t front about how much money they have or how much they make. But for every person like that, in my opinion there are 7 or 8 people doing the exact opposite. Putting on a complete front. Sucking up every last dime to hopefully fill some sort of void.
And to those of you who are doing that, the mountain of debt you’re building has a peak. Good luck to all of us over the next few years as this credit crunch might really hit us hard. One of these days, those 0% APR for 12 months, $0 transfer fee cards is going to run out. And when it does there’s going to be plenty of people scrambling to get rid of things they thought they needed. I hope you’re all able to either return the stuff you’ve purchased or pawn them off on Ebay. So that the next time it seems like there’s free money to go around you’ll have learned from this time around and use more discretion in the future.
Consume less, live more.
I’m trying.
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