@HouseChatte and @conmama Like both those suggestions. Ok now what purse? Lol
Those Margaux City Sandals are very nice. Each color choice looks so different – dressed up or down. I love block heels!
I won’t wear even as much heel as HouseChatte posted - especially since a broken toe never healed properly, but I agree with the idea that a metallic shoe is automatically festive is right on.
I’d say any black or silver small evening purse would be fine.
Lovely dress! Block heel sandals sound good with it.
I went to the mall today! Yay me. It was… wait for it… packed!!! For the first time saw dudes marking tires with chalk in the garage! It was so full. Nordstrom was buzzing. Wanted to browse sale racks at Max Mara, but the sticky sales people ruined my shopping. I quickly ran out. Did not get much shopping for myself done because it was a targeted mall run. My assistant is retiring… whaaaaaa! I got her a farewell gift.
Another thing to worry about
I was going to make this a stand alone post but decided to put it here because this is the group I would like to hear from.
11 years ago I moved to a rural town with very little shopping. Around that time, online shopping became a thing and as I am a true petite, there are very little choices for me to shop in person.
I admit I buy a lot online, I also return a lot. I have such limited choices and things fit different and look different than a picture on the internet.
Now I am reading that companies are taking returns and throwing them away. That it’s too much trouble to hire someone to return, repackage and resell. So it just goes in dumpsters!
Now I feel like I’m in a real quandary. I mean, one option is to stop ordering things. And that might be my option, but I do like pretty things lol! I could drive 100 miles to a brick and mortar store where I am pretty confident that returns make it in to the sales floor.
But to be honest, I’m pretty, I don’t know, upset about this. Sounds so wasteful. Has anyone else heard about this? Will it change how you order things? Is there any way to find out which retailers throw away returns? Or what they do with returns?
Do you have a source or link to some of the articles you’ve read?
I have not heard of it, and I’m curious!
@deb922 that is not ok! I have not heard this. Did it reference any company in particular? I would think they would be pummeled with negative feedback!
Interesting articles- I’m going to discuss with my DIL who works for a shoe company. I thought a lot of companies were working on improving their footprint. On the other hand my niece who is very environmentally active talked of how a lot of companies are engaged in green washing. Talking a good talk but not taking enough positive actions.
Like @deb922 I do most of my shopping online since my local retail selection is weak.
My 2020 goal is to wear more of what I have in my closet. I find I tend to pick the same things to wear each week. Yesterday I reached for one sweater I wear a lot but took it off and picked another. My H asked if it was new. I had bought it at least 3 years ago but rarely wear it. I did a Marie Kondo of my closet last January and I plan to go through it again in early February. I like to save those projects for when my H is out of town.
"…Optoro, like Newmine and Rebound, focus on working with retailers to reduce returns however they estimate that just 50% of returns goes back into store inventory. The state of the garments-owing to use, damage, or even just opened boxes, meaning that the other half enjoy a very different journey.
This might involve returning to their manufacturer or reselling them but often they might be sold at a fraction of the original cost to discounters or liquidators. Quite apart from the carbon footprint of often transporting discarded clothes around the globe, trying to find them a home, if at any stage of the process it’s less expensive to throw them away, landfill becomes the final destination…"
I poked around the internet and the above link & quote is an article from November of 2019.
Sure, it’s probably “good” to consume less? IDK. However, the economy hums on people buying things and replacing what they have. What can we do?
From the few articles I read, there are companies trying to monetize the returns. One is called ReturnRunners.
And boy, if you want to avoid seeing a lot of waste, don’t ever work in the restaurant biz! Gah.
I saw the return/landfill epidemic as a FB share. I thought it was referring to Amazon, but can’t remember. I have such hard-to-fit feet that I usually order 4-6 pairs of shoes at a time from zappos because I can find nothing around here.
This is now giving me pause, though I think they repackage/resell.
@deb922 , that’s terrible. My goodness, at least they could forward it to charity. It wouldn’t make me stop ordering clothing online, though.
@mom60 , I’m the same way. I’m going to make that a goal this year to…obviously focusing on winter. I’m going to start pulling out the things I like and purchased but hang there, while I wear my favs over and over.
Most of the clothes I order online have brick and mortar stores near me, so typically I just return to the store rather than mail back. I do make returns to Amazon but don’t really ever buy clothes from Amazon.
I once ordered something from Lands End that came in a fairly large box. I think it was a couple of winter coats and snow boots. Whatever it was, some or all of it I returned to the Lands End shop in my local Sears, bringing it back to the store in the box it came in.
Sometime shortly thereafter, UPS delivered this large very heavy box to my house. It was so heavy, I had to drag it into my house. I opened it up and it was stuffed full with at least 50 Lands End items - we’re talking everything from bathing suits to shirts, shoes and more expensive items like a men’s blazer. I was dumbstruck but it was clear to me that everything in the box was returned items as they were in plastic bags labeled with the reason for return. It was easily $1000 worth of stuff. I called Lands End, who had no idea why I received the box, but arranged for UPS to retrieve it. Well, I realized after sealing the box up that the box was the original box MY stuff had come in, the one I brought back to Lands End/Sears - the store had never removed the mailing label with my address, had reused the box and put a new UPS label on it. I guess when UPS picked it up, they didn’t notice there were two labels and delivered it to me. I’m careful now to remove labels or blackout my address whenever I take items back. Anyway, it would make me sick to think a store would throw out all that stuff I’m assuming Lands End doesn’t or the brick and mortar store wouldn’t waste the postage on returning to the warehouse.
I’m surprised at that statistic. I work for a retail company and we try to reshelve items (not that many clothes) and we have a special outlet where we ship returns and sell them at very low prices. We don’t toss items unless they are damaged in a way that isn’t the responsibility of the manufacturer. I know there is probably a lot of waste with clothing- that’s why some of the younger folks shop resale locations.
That’s terrible. I buy a few things online but I try to minimize returns, so I stick to the brands I know would work for me sizing-wise. I don’t buy fast fashion stuff, so what I do return can be easily resold because it is not out of style in the two weeks it takes for the item to make a trip to my doorstep and back to the retailer. I also shop RealReal a lot. The returns make it back on their website.
“A like-new item or piece of clothing might be able to be resold at full cost. But most returns are used or damaged. A recent retail survey found that less than half of all goods can be resold at full cost.” - Maybe since your returns are not used or damaged, they go back to inventory (or at least to charity).
I’m careful when I return something to keep all the packaging and return it as close to how it came as possible. I asked my S if he knew what his company did. He wasn’t positive but thought that since returns went back to the distribution center they probably are resold if they are unworn. His company also does a huge warehouse sale a few times a year. He made a comment similar to @BunsenBurner about fast fashion.
I’m wearing the pink and grey coatigan today for the first time. Wearing my black Spanx pants and a pink light pullover sweater with the coatigan over it. Pink suede Hush Puppie booties. It was plenty warm for my drive to work (36 degrees) and I’ll see how long I can keep it on here in the office. So far it’s fine. I like how soft it is and how it looks.
Oh, your outfit sounds very cute! I’m actually wearing mine tomorrow for lunch (it’s cold here too), and am curious how long I’ll be able to keep it on in the restaurant. I’ll be wearing it the exact same way as the Influencer did. The sweater she had on was out of stock when I purchased the Coatigan, but is back in stock. I bought it Saturday, they had to order from the store. I really like it, it’s actually tightly knit black and white, not grey. Buts it’s sort of thick. I’m thinking it would be great walking outside, but not indoors.
So, I found a nice thin cotton crew neck sweater at Banana Republic this weekend I’ll wear tomorrow. It’s nice just to have, I like the cut. I tried to find it online to link, but couldn’t. They did have a very nice soft thin merino wool, in V-neck and crew, but I find any kind of wool makes me itchy. But that’s just me.