6.113 retail shock

Thursday 03/27/2025

Today being uncommitted I decided to do something I had been putting off: go shopping. A friend had recommended that I try to get some color into my wardrobe. What I wear during daylight savings time is polo shirts. (Long-sleeve turtlenecks are for standard time.) And the majority of my polo shirts are gray or black. So I decided to go over to Stanford Shopping Center and find me a couple of polos in non-black, non-gray colors. The shopping center web page let me list the stores that had men’s casual clothes. Well, I have a thing about Macy’s. I took Nordstrom off the list just because. But off I went.

At J. Crewe I found one nice polo in a sort of dark beige, well, better than gray. Off to The Gap. Nothing. Urban Outfitter? Lord, what a useless store that is! Finally one that I am not familiar with, an Italian place, Brunello Cucinelli. Obviously an upscale place; so upscale they don’t have anything like a rack, just individual garments spaced out on counters like museum artifacts.

I was helped by a very friendly young woman, Mona, who was sure they had a nice polo shirt I would like. She found a couple, and one I actually liked. Cotton, medium blue, looks and feels nice. “I’ll take that one, please” I say.

So off to the checkout counter and I ask Mona, “So how much is this one?” There’s no price visible. She says, “Oh, the price is here,” and she looks through all the tags on the garment and does not find a price. She goes over to a computer, and comes back and says brightly, “It’s a thousand.”

I said, “What, lira?” thinking she was making some kind of joke about Italian clothes.

“No,” she said smiling, “A thousand.”

“Dollars?”

“Yes, of course.”

“A polo shirt for one thousand dollars.”

“Mm-hmm,” she smiled.

So I very politely said sorry, I can’t do that. “Maybe I could pay a thousand for a tailored blazer? But not a polo shirt. Thank you for your time, Mona, you’ve been very helpful.”

So ended my shopping trip.

In the afternoon I played guitar for an hour, and played a video game for about the same length of time.