Stop Trying to Sell or Distract Me

Can you see the stain?

Last week I fell in love. With a purse. It doesn't happen often. In fact, I had been looking for a new purse for at least the last six months and hadn't had much luck. But I was hanging out before I got my hair done on Friday, passed a store and love this cute yellow purse. I debated it while I got my hair done and then decided that that was the purse. 

I kept the purse in its package all weekend until I switched out my old purse on Sunday night. I wanted to have something fun on Monday to look froward to. And I did. Until I was leaving to run an errand at lunch and saw that three small specks of cola had landed on the front of my bright yellow purse. Then opening the flap saw a larger stain. I freaked. It's been less than a week. PLUS the company I got it from sent me a coupon on Monday--three days after I had bought the purse--for 25 percent off. it was a timed promotion and I was more than a little pissed that the sales person hadn't mentioned it when I bought the purse. 

But I digress. In my panic of the cola stain, I took it to a branch of the store i bought it at and asked if their leather cleaner would do the trick. One of the sales women grabbed my purse, looked at the company care instructions for the leather and then told me their leather moisturizer should work. She then asked me if I wanted her to try and get it out. I said yes. The other sales woman took the opportunity to pull a matching coin purse for my purse and proceeded to try and sell it to me. 

Me: I don't want a coin purse.I just want my purse to not have a cola stain.

Her: But this is a limited color and will probably sell out quickly.

Me: I don't care. Actually, I'm more than a little pissed that I bought this purse at full price on Friday and you all had the 25 percent off for Facebook fans and key customers promotion that started Monday. Do you do any price adjustments?

Her: I love your green shoes. (she then flitted off. I turned back to the woman trying to get the stain off of my bag). 

Me:Is it working?

Her: It is, but it's going to take a while to get it out. This leather is delicate, so you have to work on a small area without getting it too wet and then let it dry to really see if the stain comes up. 

Me: How long is that going to take?

Her: A really long time. This is really on there.  I can give you a bottle of the moisturizer and a cloth. 

The other sales woman heard this and then said that I would need to pay for the moisturizer. I asked if I could use the 25 percent off discount for FB fans and she said that I would need to print out the coupon and come back to get it. She then proceeded to ask where I worked (I had told her I was on a lunch break) and said it sounded like a fun job. 

In the end, I was happy with the lady that actually tried to help me but I will never go into THAT store again because of the woman who tried to distract me or sell me something (she asked me AGAIN on my way out if I wanted that damn coin purse). How about you just try and get the damn coke stain off my purse so I don't explode?

I am still sick about this. 

Strategic Shopping

There are many things that Chef is amazing at. Cooking, making me laugh, trivial pursuit. The list goes on and on. However, there are some things that having a girlfriend really helps on. Shopping is one of those things.

My experience with shopping LA has been mixed. The first couple of weeks here really sucked because it was the holidays. Any store would be slammed in a highly populated city. So I couldn't really blame the stores for being crowded.

Now that I've been here a few months and have at least navigated through my part of town, I feel a little more able to avoid some traffic and do what I call "strategic shopping." I take what the city has to offer and use it to my advantage.

Let me give you an example:

• When I want a good cut of pork, some fresh made salsa or handmade tortillas, I go to the Ralph's grocery store on Pico. It's in a Hispanic/ Latino neighborhood and is very well stocked in all things related to Mexican food.
• When it was the holidays and I wanted some good beef and little crowds, I hit the grocery store in the Jewish neighborhood. It was less full of Christmas crowds and had a great selection of various beef cuts--plus fantastic corned beef. I'm in; I'm out; I'm happy.
• For a quarter, I can park on the street in front of Trader Joe's without having to circle the crowded parking lot for 20 minutes. I can also park within 20 feet of the front door and be able to get in without raising my blood pressure. It's worth the 25 cents for my peace of mind.
• If I'm lucky enough to convince Chef to hit an outlet mall with me, I should look at the list of stores and narrow my focus to the ones where I would have the highest likelihood of getting the best deal. For example, an H&M or Old Navy outlet store, while intriguing, would not necessarily provide me with a much deeper discount than their regular stores. However, a Coach or Nine West outlet could provide me with some real savings. Such was the case today when I celebrated my new job (details to come in another post) with a deeply discounted Coach purse. It's purple and gorgeous (picture below).

Those are some of my first LA lessons in strategic shopping. I'm sure I'll come up with many more as I spend more time here. And until then, I'll patiently wait for some female friends --either new or old-- to do some shopping with.