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Sunday, July 06, 2025

Clothes Shopping In-Store Was... Weird

 Is it just me, or have a lot of us gotten spoiled in our shopping habits by online access? I can't be the only one. Can I?

This year for my birthday, I decided to focus on 2 things: my health and my wardrobe. I set aside my monetary birthday gifts for clothes, and I bought myself some resistance bands for exercise and am buying another health-related item when Prime Day hits. 

Anyway, about the clothes shopping...  Instead of heading to Amazon.com or Walmart.com, I went to Old Navy.com and found a nice blouse and a couple of pairs of jeans. There was a bit of a sale (I think there is always a bit of a sale at O.N.) and I decided to get dark blue jeans instead of more of the black jeans I have. I have about 5 pairs of black jeans because I have been self-conscious about my weight. Now that I am losing weight (thanks to my dentist), I decided to go blue with the jeans. 

I chose "boyfriend jeans" without knowing anything about that style because they looked really cute on the model. I got them in my usual size and... Is it vain of me to say how thrilled I was that the jeans were absolutely huge on me? They were sagging like crazy when I tried them on. I will temper that by saying that I think "boyfriend" jeans are meant to be worn loose and kind of slouchy. I'm not a fan of "slouchy", and I wasn't crazy about the rolled cuff. Even if I were still a size 4, 6, 8, or 12, those jeans would not be flattering on me. I'm not sure how the model wore them so well...

Since the jeans were too big (I love saying that), I decided to return them in-store. It's been a minute since I've shopped the store and wanted to get an idea of how O.N. sizes run. Sure enough, from looking at several pairs in various styles, either those pants run large or else I've lost more weight than I thought. (The waist is looser on my regular sized jeans and I'm not struggling at all to get into the next size down. Again, I really like being able to say that just a little over a month of having my teeth.)

My SIL was with me and agreed that O.N. sizes did runs slightly large. We looked around for about fifteen minutes before I was sick of trying to shop in-store. It just felt very inconvenient and irritating. For one thing, for every style of jeans I liked, we had to sort through jumbles of sizes. Everything was neatly folded, but nothing was sorted by size. Finally, I just got a refund, and we left. It is just too hot and humid to be sorting through denim. 

By the way, what is up with stores not running the air a bit cooler on sweltering days? I can remember surviving Arizona summers by strolling through stores and malls. 

Apparently, Old Navy didn't get the memo

I wonder if stores here realize they might get more business if they made the atmosphere more comfortable. Another thing the SIL and I noticed is that both Old Navy and Staples (I had to do an Amazon return there) were not only stingy with the AC but seem to lack staffing. Those poor employees at Staples must hate Amazon returns. If they had turned up the AC, I might have strolled around and bought some notebooks or something.

So, again, is it just me? Have I gotten spoiled to shopping from the keyboard the way remote workers have gotten spoiled to being productive in their PJs?

Anyway, I am back home and have had a nice cool shower - for the second time today. I'm pretty sure if I go out anymore today while the sun is up, I will need a third shower. Arizonans like to say, "But it's a dry heat." Where I live, we say, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity."... By the way, I even cut my hair. It was just too much to care for in this summer weather.

Now I can go find some jeans. I guess I'm just not used to being out in the hot and understaffed stores anymore. When I go online, all the stores let me go right to the size and color and style I want. I don't have to refold stuff (or feel like a jerk for not doing so), and I don't have to wonder why they mixed put the stonewashed denims in with the dark blues I want... It's just not as tedious. 

Peace

--Free


I wrote this the day after my birthday, then immediately got a nasty cold. Just remembered that I wanted to post this, so...