The Chronic Consumer

As part of my preparation for the upcoming college football season, I treated myself to some new Missouri Tigers gear. I used Fans Edge this time instead of the usual Football Fanatics or Amazon, but am not really happy with the quality of the merchandise. The shopping experience was fine, but the t-shirts I got were crap.

The first one was this arch t-shirt. It’s an officially licensed product made by New Agenda, but the material is very thin and flimsy. The description says that it’s 100% cotton and is “lightweight rib knit”. Is that code for being practically see-through? (Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating. A little.) The screen printing seems kind of sketchy too, like it will peel off before going through five wash and dry cycles. We’ll see how long this lasts. Oh, and the sizing runs a bit small, but this is mentioned right in the product description, so I’m not complaining about that.

The second shirt I bought was this Mizzou Alumni model. It’s also made by New Agenda and carries the same 100% cotton, “lightweight rib knit” labels. Not surprisingly, I have the same problems with this shirt that I have with the other one. It’s thin as hell and feels incredibly cheap. The screen printing quality is also about the same, so I have my doubts about the longevity of this product as well.

If there’s a plus side, I guess it’s that the arch tee only cost $12.99 and the alumni tee cost $14.99. Yeah, I could have gotten a higher quality Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour t-shirt for $28, but at least I have two shirts at my disposal (for the time being) instead of just one.

In the future, though, I’m going to be very careful about buying any sports apparel made by New Agenda.

I grabbed a bottle of Organic Strawberry Lemonade from Trader Joe’s one day without even reading the label. I didn’t realize it was organic (that’s not something I look for on labels); I was just hoping for a refreshing drink.

Well, I didn’t find it in that bottle! That Joe Tea Strawberry Lemonade was the nastiest stuff I’ve ever tasted! It had a distinct medicinal quality about it that was simply disgusting. I passed it off to my son, who actually liked it.

Yeah, perhaps this isn’t the most complete or articulate review I’ve posted. Nevertheless, I just wanted to get it on record that I hated this crap!!

I am starting to purchase some new t-shirts for the summer, and as much as I like gear featuring my favorite sports teams, I’m kind of getting tired of always wearing the same things. So this time around I decided to buy the Alpinestars t-shirt pictured here.

Alpinestars is a brand that’s big in the motorcycle world. I’ve always thought their logo was pretty cool, but this is the first time I’ve ever actually bought something from the company. Anyway, this t-shirt is called “Stuck,” and is illustrated by some parts of the logo that look like someone has tried to peel it away. You know, like when a sticker is stuck on but you try to peel it off?

So…this is your basic 100% pre-shrunk cotton tee with a screenprinted logo and a tiny logo tag on the left sleeve. It seems durable enough for now, but I fear that after several more times through the washer and dryer, the graphic will start to fade and/or peel.

All in all, I’m happy with this Alpinestars Stuck t-shirt for now. Twenty dollars wasn’t a bad price, and if it lasts for 6 months, I’ll be happy!

Edited 4/1 to add: Well, that didn’t take long. While the basic shirt itself seems to be made of quality cotton, the screenprinted logo is absolute crap. After fewer than 5 times through the wash (not even the dryer, as I wanted to preserve the shirt as much as possible), the left side of the logo is flaking off really badly. The shirt looks awful now, and is not suitable to wear outside the house. I guess I can keep it for yard work or sleeping, but it won’t be good for much else. SAVE YOUR MONEY and don’t buy this garbage!!!!!

I usually don’t complain much in my posts because most of the products I buy turn out to be better than what I expected. But that wasn’t the case with this CampusOne Mizzou t-shirt that I bought a short time ago.

It’s a white t-shirt with black screen-printed lettering edged in gold. The shirt looks absolutely fantastic when it’s brand new because all the colors really pop. But after just a single trip through the dryer, the lettering faded so much that the shirt looked like it had aged a few years! I know the dryer can wreak havoc on screen-printing, so I try not to judge the effects too harshly. But in this case, the wear factor is just way too much.

I wouldn’t recommend buying this one!

OMG, I was just looking through one of those “worst Christmas gifts ever” lists that always pop up at this time of year, and came across this horrifying thing called a “Peekaru”. It’s some kind of stupid snuggie that allows moms to carry their babies while presumably keeping them warm outdoors. I understand the concept, but seriously, the picture of that baby’s face just sticking out like that looks scary as hell! I would NEVER wear one of these things if I had a baby!!!!

I love Hot Pockets. In fact, there was a period of time when I ate Hot Pockets for lunch every.single. day. For like a year. So when I started seeing these Side Shots at the grocery store, I was a bit intrigued. I finally got around to trying a package of the Mini Cheeseburger flavor the other day — and have to say I was less than impressed.

First of all, I should have known better than to expect any kind of bun/bread to come out right in the microwave. Past experience with frozen food should have taught me that much. But I was at least hoping for the filling to be nice and tasty, which is where the disappointment comes in. I don’t know quite how to explain it, but this simply wasn’t as flavorful as you’d think. There was a faint taste of meat and a faint taste of cheese, yet the overall impression was not that of a cheeseburger. Does that make sense?

At any rate, though I still love my Hot Pockets and Lean Pockets, I don’t think I’ll be buying Side Shots again anytime soon.

A friend of mine loves antiques, and asked me to go shopping with her today. She’s looking for a particular style of desk, and went to several different stores to check out the ones they had. She didn’t end up buying anything, though, because the ones in good condition were too expensive, while the affordable ones looked pretty bad.

Personally, I have never understood the attraction of antique furniture. If I’m in a museum, then sure, I’d enjoy looking at old stuff. But I would much rather have modern furniture in my own house than stuff that has been used for a hundred years or more. And why people pay top dollar for old furniture — stuff that isn’t even particularly rare — is also beyond me.

I don’t know… antiques? Pass.

Although I love shopping online, I absolutely cannot stand unnecessarily high shipping charges. Yesterday I came across some earbud type earphones for my iPod that I really liked. They were a special pair that had a team logo on them, so they cost $14.99 for a set of two. I was all set to order, but during the checkout process noticed that the store said shipping would be calculated and added at a different time. Well, having recently learned my lesson about allowing a store to add shipping charges later, I decided to just email them for the info instead.

I got a reply within a couple hours, which was great customer service. But get this: they were going to charge $9.90 to ship that $15 product that probably weighed about half a pound total!!! Are you kidding me? What a friggin’ ripoff! There’s no way I would go through with an order like that.

I know the store is not setting the rates. It’s clearly a UPS thing, but still… there’s no excuse for absurd shipping charges like that. Maybe these companies should provide an alternative option (such as the post office) for smaller items that could just be stuffed into a padded envelope and mailed for a buck. Is that really asking too much?!