May 17, 2013

Shopping in the U.S.A.

Last week, my friends, Sandy and Cindy and I went on a shopping trip to Watertown and Syracuse in New York.  It was my first girls' shopping trip but certainly not my last.  I had so much fun.


I found a Hobby Lobby which I knew I would love from seeing references on Judy's blog.  Boy, did I ever!  I blew the budget there.


But we also hit Kohl's, Macy's, Target and a lot more besides.  I got some great deals on new pjs and a skort and t-shirts and sandals...


I noticed a few differences between shopping in Canada and the US.  Primarily, the prices...wow. We got some amazing deals that I can't find around here.  It was nice to see things that were different and unique.


It felt weird that everything wasn't in English and French.  I am used to seeing that so it always felt like something was missing.  I bought a bunch of fabric at Hobby Lobby too (I'll share that as I use it) but I bought it in yards, not metres.  We had to try to figure how long it would take to get somewhere, converting miles back to kilometres.  Although we seem the same, there were little reminders that we were in a foreign country.


Can we interrupt this post for a moment to let you know I fell in love with this chesterfield?  It would be perfect for my sunroom but it wouldn't fit in my shopping bag.


I must compliment the store staff on their excellent customer service.  Every experience I had was exemplary.  When I was younger, I worked at Sears and we worked hard to welcome people, to help customers and to try to actually sell something.  I feel we have lost that here except in small owner operated stores where the food on their plate depends on the way they treat the customer.  I had staff say hello and welcome and offer assistance every where I went.  I don't know if that is consistent all through the United States or if the cities along the border are catering to Canadians and are therefore, trying harder.  Maybe it's because the economy has been worse in the States and people are so happy to have a job and show it.  I came home and stood in the lineup at my favourite grocery store and watched the cashier.  She was cashing through a large grocery order and totally ignored the woman while gossiping with the teen in front of me who was obviously a friend.  This friend only had a couple of items, not a full cart but it took the girl a lot longer to cash her through than the first customer.  Welcome back to Canada!  We really need to work on that here.


And the dressing rooms.....well, I think Americans might be offended by our dressing rooms.  I went to try on some clothes at Kohl's and I'm standing at the entrance to the dressing room, wondering where the girl was.  Then I noticed customers just going in and out.  Whaa???  At home, our dressing rooms are guarded like they hide the national treasury.  You show the girl how many pieces of clothing you are taking in (often it is restricted to 3 items), you are given a tag and allowed through to the dressing room.    You try them on and then if you aren't buying them, you return them to the guard at the door.  I always feel a twinge of guilt if I'm not taking it and feel I need to explain.  Crazy, eh?

And finally, the food and drinks.  Oh My.  The drinks at the restaurants all seem to be supersized, holy cow.  It was interesting to see what was cheaper or more expensive in US grocery stores.  But the plates of food in restaurants!  I thought our servings were too big here but in the States, they are HUGE and cheaper than home.  We ordered a pizza on the second night and made margaritas and played rummi-cube in our room.  It was great but we ordered a large pizza.  After all, there were three of us so a medium wouldn't be enough.  We thought it was on the expensive side until it arrived at our hotel room.


Dear God, the box was almost as wide as a single bed.  It's a miracle they got it through the door.  I have never seen such a big pizza in my life and we were hungry, really hungry but the 3 of us could only finish half.  We tried; I promise you we did.  I threw away my crusts and Sandy only ate the bacon off her last piece.  Incredible!  I'll definitely be back though.  I had a blast!

Julie

1 comment:

  1. Julie - Sounds like your "girls trip" was a blast! So glad your experience in the US was good. Looks like you got some real goodies.

    Thanks for the link to my post.

    Have a great weekend.

    Judy

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a comment. I love hearing from you and getting to know you.