Community Chat

[sunshine 919]

I was just talking to a friend about this.  I remember lingerie departments.  Things were always folded nicely, a lady was always at the cashier desk and would help you find items.  And if the item was not on the sales floor they would go to the back and check the inventory.  I also remember how clean everything was.  I was in Macys a few days ago and clothes were on the floor, food had been spilled on the floor. I don;t remember people eating in the store back then.  I do remember free boxes, I also remember courtesy wrap when Christmas shopping.  IF you wanted to pay there were boxes wrapped and you could pick which one you wanted  They would give you a ticket and you would come back and your packages would be nicely wrapped for a reasonable price.  Yes I guess we were spoiled

[tansy]

I remember women wearing hair rollers in public quite often.  

[AngelPuppy1]

@millieshops 

Yes, agreed -- to us, when I was little, $10 was a lot of money!  We didn't get an allowance or anything.  We just were expected to do our chores and that was that.  I think if we tried to do a few extra things at Christmas, we asked our mom and dad if we could have a couple dollars for doing these things so we could buy a couple gifts for family.  We got maybe $5.00.  They would take us to a little town about 10 minutes away and we shopped at the Murphy's store.  It was like heaven because I never got to go shopping!  It also gave us a chance to see the decorations on the streets and outside of the other stores.  These were wonderful memories!!!  I really treasure them. 

[AngelPuppy1]

@FancyPhillyshopper 

I loved your post!  Amazing experiences you have had!  And I would also love to visit the Christmas markets in Germany.  

[AngelPuppy1]

I see the old videos and movies and hear what other people have said about the shopping experiences of times gone by and I just love it!  I love shopping and always have.  I wish the stores were like I used to hear about.  The store clerks really being there to serve you, courteous, pleasant and available  --- placing a purchase in a nice box and providing wrapping, etc.  I do remember a local store, that had a wrapping station at Christmas where you could drop off the items you bought there and it would be wrapped nicely for free.  There is no customer service any more.  Most of the time they act like they are doing you a favor by you getting to shop there.  

[millieshops]

I do remember all the niceties from the 1950's stores, but I never had family or friends who could afford to take much advantage, and I do remember my mother and the aunt who was her shopping companion complain about the clerks who were not at all pleasant except to their regular customers.  

Those stores were not in our little town, so shopping day was really a long day. My mother loved excellent fabrics and could sew well, so our first stops were almost always in the stores where she couldn't buy.  That gave her a good idea of what was being offered and what the costs were.  (Shopping channels of the times??)  I know there were some years when her only "new" clothes came from rummage sales.  

I also remember we always lunched in the same department store although I have no remembrance of the prices.  The only price I remember is the nickel that store charged to use a toilet -  we'd get all 3 of us in on that nickel, one after the other.

Nostalgia has a way of making the past better than its reality.  I know that era was far different from today, but the shopping aspect of then isn't something I miss when I think of that time.    

[LTT1]

@Witchy Woman 

I can relate, although by 1960's standards my family was considered "well-off"!

I babysat for 50 cents an hour.

We lived in Bedford, IN. I can remember being dropped off downtown and meeting up with school friends...walking around the town square on foot and going to "Ben Franklin Five and Dime". Those were fun memories!

There were no malls back then, but emerging in this small town was a strip shopping center where there was a "Paul Harris" for clothing for junior high. How I loved that store!

[Another new name Sue]

My mother and I used to go shopping on December 26 to shop the sales. Things weren't on sale before Christmas back in those days. We shopped until we dropped. At home, we spread out everything on the living room floor to enjoy looking at the deals we got.

[mormel20]

Growing up, my parents ordered from the Sears Catalog.  We lived in a rural area and it would be about an hours drive to get to any good stores (we had a drugstore and five and dime type stores nearby). Which would be an hour there and an hour back plus ever how long you shopped it would take a day. Which is time my parents did not want to take.  So it was mostly the Sear Catalog. I loved the Christmas Wish Book edition. I would look and look and look. 

[roeroe1005]

So, which came first?  The chicken or the egg?

Did online shopping destroy shopping in a store, mall, etc., or stores started going downhill because people wanted to shop in their pajamas and not brush their teeth??  Who/what is the reason online shopping exploded?

I worked a second job (fine jewelry) at Saks Fifth Avenue for 25 years.  Worked 25 Black Fridays and 25 Christmas', up until 2008, when the economy crashed.  I used to love working Christmas Eve.  We could sell ice to an Eskimo.  Nothing like a desperate husband on December 24. 

And all that time, our items went in boxes, regardless of the time of the year.  And you wanted something gift wrapped?  We gift wrapped.  I can still remember wrapping a designer handbag and being yelled at because it took too long.  

Even that child buying a pair of costume earrings for their mommy got a high end box and the box was wrapped as if they were spending hundreds and not $20.

Even though I am retired, I still work part time in retail.  And I see it from the other side.