The other day I was shopping with my eldest daughter in order that she could buy her sister a present. One of the items on youngest daughter's list was clothing from a store called lululemon athletica. It's a store that sells yoga clothing and active wear. This company is a huge success story, in that it started out in Vancouver in 1998 and now has over 100 stores in Canada, USA, Australia and Hong Kong. You can click on the link if you would like to know more.
This, however isn't the purpose of my post. My purpose is to you as a consumer what kind of consumer are you? Are you the type that shops all around looking for the best price, do you only buy name brands or will a knock off do?
When do we as consumers say enough is enough. Case in point, when we were in the store my daughter purchased a "wee" and I mean "wee" little yoga top and headband for her sister. The yoga top on sale was $44 regularly $68 and the headband was $12 add our 12% sales tax and these two pieces cost $63.84! Is your chin dropping? If it isn't it should be. If you can get out of that store for under a $100 you have done well. I think it's criminal, and as consumers we should just keep our wallets shut, but we don't. Why, because this store is "Trendy". This company espouses to promote community awareness and healthy life style. Well that is all well and good, but should I be paying for their advertising and community programs? If they truly wanted to do something for the community why don't they make their products more affordable. It's a darn piece of stretchy material for goodness sakes! A headband for $12! Give me a break, silly of my daughter for paying that price, I told the clerk in the store that their products are way over priced and that I thought my daughter irresponsible for purchasing it....but she wanted it for her sister, so what to do.
Well what I have chosen to do is write this post as my public notice and I won't shop at their store and I have written to the store itself to voice my concerns regarding their prices, whether it does any good I don't know.
So I ask you, what kind of consumer are you?
4 comments:
Good for you for writing to that store to voice your concerns. I just avoid them altogether as I won't pay those kind of prices. When I do shop at some place more expensive or pay for services which are rather costly, I do object to the high prices. Sometimes they give me a discount in future and if not, I can go somewhere else.
I've always been a bargain hunter shopper. The only time I will ever buy anything and pay the full "suggested manufacturer's price" is if it is something I absolutely have to have for some important occasion or other! I even bargain shopped for the outfits I got for both my daughters' weddings and found just the right outfit for each occasion on sale at some very reasonable prices then! My older daughter has always been one to hang on to the name brand stuff and even then, she would never watch and wait for things to go on sale either. But Mandy, my younger girl, is really a mega bargain shopper -in the stores yes, but she also hits Goodwill, Salvation Army, consignment places and E-bay too and frequently comes away with some really great buys then too!
I agree with you about refusing to patronize places that consistently sell stuff at prices that are way over-priced. At the end of the day, you still have to be able to pay your bills and buy food and gas then too so what good does it do to have the pretty but extremely expensive stuff if you can't make those payments then?
I'm a shopper who loves a bargain. However, a bargain to me is only a bargain if I can afford it.
Totally agree with you on this to the point that I almost hate shopping these days. I only go shopping when I absolutely "need" something and still look for a bargain!
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