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The Magic Price Point
June 26th, 2011 10:37 pmI went to the huge King of Prussia mall today with a few friends. (It has literally every store I'm interested in, except for Anthro, sadly.) These are not Anthro/J.Crew-type friends; we spent long periods of time in H&M and Forever 21, and I ended up just buying a few cheap accessories from Wet Seal and New York & Company. A nice black belt to replace an Urban Outfitters belt that recently broke--I returned it for a merchandise credit, using a year-old receipt--and two clearance scarves, for a total of $11.
EDIT: Also a <$2 nail file from the Sanrio store, haha.
In fact, the belt (on sale for $5 at NY&Co) is pretty much a knock-off of Anthropologie's Looping Lanes Belt, which I've loved on several bloggers. The scarves are just so-so, but I needed to buy one for the Scarf Swap and it was a buy-one-get-one sale on top of clearance prices. I tried on a bunch of other stuff and some of it looked OK, but the fit wasn't perfect or the quality was discouraging.
F21 had a really cute blue tank top with a white dove print, but the armholes were huge and taking up the straps would have left me with a bizarrely prudish neckline given the skimpiness of the tank top. The Banana Republic also had a ton of tuxedo-bib button-down shirts on clearance, some in pink and a bunch in off-white, for just $11 plus 40% off. However, my shopping companions were universally against the shirt--they called it prudish--and the body was very wide, so I passed. I have NEVER seen a BR-quality button-down priced that low with multiples in stock, and it wasn't even final sale... but, of course, the fit is way off.
And now I finally get to the original point of this post: the magic price point. I realized that I will buy something on impulse if it is 1) a piece of clothing or shoes (excludes scarves, belts, costume jewelry, etc.) and 2) priced below $10. This is definitely lower than my price point a year ago, which was more like $20; but then, I have also raised my maximum price point quite a bit to include first-cut Anthro. I ended up returning the Eyeleted Corset Top because the colors were too hard to work with, but I'm still somewhat willing to pay $100 for a "perfect" piece of high-quality clothing. And if that top goes on sale for $50, I may be calling CS to repurchase it...
O anonymous reader: what is your magic price point? Do you have fine-print exceptions to the rule?
EDIT: Also a <$2 nail file from the Sanrio store, haha.
In fact, the belt (on sale for $5 at NY&Co) is pretty much a knock-off of Anthropologie's Looping Lanes Belt, which I've loved on several bloggers. The scarves are just so-so, but I needed to buy one for the Scarf Swap and it was a buy-one-get-one sale on top of clearance prices. I tried on a bunch of other stuff and some of it looked OK, but the fit wasn't perfect or the quality was discouraging.
F21 had a really cute blue tank top with a white dove print, but the armholes were huge and taking up the straps would have left me with a bizarrely prudish neckline given the skimpiness of the tank top. The Banana Republic also had a ton of tuxedo-bib button-down shirts on clearance, some in pink and a bunch in off-white, for just $11 plus 40% off. However, my shopping companions were universally against the shirt--they called it prudish--and the body was very wide, so I passed. I have NEVER seen a BR-quality button-down priced that low with multiples in stock, and it wasn't even final sale... but, of course, the fit is way off.
And now I finally get to the original point of this post: the magic price point. I realized that I will buy something on impulse if it is 1) a piece of clothing or shoes (excludes scarves, belts, costume jewelry, etc.) and 2) priced below $10. This is definitely lower than my price point a year ago, which was more like $20; but then, I have also raised my maximum price point quite a bit to include first-cut Anthro. I ended up returning the Eyeleted Corset Top because the colors were too hard to work with, but I'm still somewhat willing to pay $100 for a "perfect" piece of high-quality clothing. And if that top goes on sale for $50, I may be calling CS to repurchase it...
O anonymous reader: what is your magic price point? Do you have fine-print exceptions to the rule?
