The Chronic Consumer

Ever since it was revealed that first daughters Sasha and Malia Obama wore outfits from Crewcuts, the J. Crew clothing store for kids, I’m sure interest in the brand surged. But when I read an article praising Michelle Obama for shopping at Crewcuts, saying that she was able to find trendy clothes that weren’t too expensive, I had to wonder if mainstream Americans would agree with that assessment.

I browsed through the site a little bit earlier today and saw that they sell silk taffeta dresses for $158, a “cymbal dress” for $248, and a silk taffeta tartan for $228. I don’t know about you, but these are not prices I’d be comfortable paying for a couple of growing girls!

Jeans at Crewcuts cost anywhere from $29.50 to $49.50,which again is more than I would pay for kids jeans. Sure, if they were in high school and basically done growing, it’s a bit of a different story, but that’s not the case with the Obama girls.

Look, I get it. The Obamas are the first family and as such they’re much richer than average people and therefore can spend differently. But I wish these idiotic reporters would stop saying stupid things about how Crewcuts is “affordable”. I’m middle-class, and I would NOT pay these prices!

The other day I posted something about how word of mouth influences my shopping habits. One of the examples I used was how I’ll check out certain insurance quotes if a friend or colleague tells me about great rates that he found at a certain site.

That prompted reader Rich to write in and say

I don’t think it’s a good idea to change your insurance coverage just because someone else got a discount. There are a ton of variables that go into a policy quote, including age, marital status, number of kids, smoking history, medical history, and so on. So the chances of two people getting the exact same quotes just because they’re friends is slim to none.

Well, thanks for your input, Rich. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that everyone would get the same low quotes. What I meant to say was that if an insurance company is known for giving lower quotes than the industry average, then they might be worth checking out.

Thanks for making me be more specific with my posts!

One of my dogs has a chronic skin problem that makes her smell really bad. I mean, it’s awful. No matter how many baths we give her, no matter how much odor spray we use, she gets pretty ripe after just a couple of days. The vet says we have two alternatives: pay for an antibiotic that costs $50 a week or put up with the smell. Since we can’t afford the former, we chose the latter.

But that doesn’t mean we’re going to let our house become overrun by the smell. We’re confining the dog to certain rooms and keeping others off limits.

In the off-limit rooms, we’re getting rid of all the old carpeting and drapes that have the odors trapped deep inside them, and we’ll replace those with throw rugs that can easily be washed and Bamboo Blinds or something similar that won’t soak up the smell.

The rooms that the dog is allowed to go in don’t have carpeting, and we’ll start to enforce a “no sleeping on the furniture” policy as far as she’s concerned. And then we’ll keep spraying everything with Febreeze until the odor subsides a bit.

In case you’re wondering, no, the skin condition is not painful or anything like that. It’s just a nuisance for the humans in the house!

Anyway, I hope these changes work!