Going "Shopping" with Susan

I remember when I was a child that I often tagged along with my mother and her friends when we went down to Loehmanns on Fordham Road or the Cross County Center. Women shopped together. It was a unifying social event.

A month or so before Briana’s college graduation my sister-in Law Susan inquired as to what to buy Briana as a gift. She even emailed me a suggestion—it was a Lagos silver bracelet. And while it was very pretty, it was expensive—too expensive I thought for a kid who in addition to wanting a gift, wanted some cash . But I liked the idea of a Lagos piece and by coincidence, the next day Rue La La was featuring Lagos. So I told Susan to quickly sign up to become a member—which she did. And the next day at exactly 11:00 when the sale began, we would get on the phone and simultaneously shop on the website.

And at exactly 10:55 am my phone rang—it was Susan—she was prepared. We both had the Rue la la website up—and at 10:59 we started hitting refresh. And poof we were both in—and we quickly scrolled until we  saw the perfect bracelet—but by the same Susan said oh that’s pretty—do you think she will like it? Poof it was sold out.

So I said okay—let’s go shopping at other stores---and we did. We went to Nordstrom and Saks and the Lagos store. And finally we found something at Bloomingdales. It was perfect but  it was $50 shy of the free shipping.  Susan said—that’s okay—I’ll pay the shipping.But that’s not how I roll..I never pay shipping.  So after I caught my breath I said—well why don’t you see first what the shipping cost is. And she did—it was $25. Oh no I said—you are not do that. Go find a $50 item—there must be something Joanna (her daughter) might like. I convinced Susan that since she planned on spending the $25 for the shipping anyway, the item for Joanna really only cost her $25—it was a bargain in fact—half off.

I am sure my brother-in-law Jack (Susan’s husband) would have not approved of my financial cost analysis. He is an accountant.  But in the olden days after ladies shopped together they often had lunch—which Susan and I could not do. So that is even more money I saved my brother in law. In my world that means Joanna’s item was for free. It’s all in the way you look at things sometimes.