Two of the World's Saddest Words:

"Store Closing."

(OK, of course there are plenty of words that are sadder than those. But when the store you're talking about is one of your favorites, it's still pretty sad.)

Lately it seems like all of my familiar ways of shopping are being forced to change because of the economy. Take scrapbooking. Since my favorite crafty store, Roberts, closed down, I'm sort of despondent. I don't like shopping online for scrapping supplies since I can't really know what an item's real feel is by seeing it online. (Plus: shipping.) Plus it just feels wrong, somehow, to pay full price. I've done it a couple of times at Archiver's and then I feel guilty and get a stomach ache. So most of the new stuff that's out right now? Totally not ending up in my stash or on my layouts. Mostly that is OK because really, I have a lot of stuff.

But I still miss shopping at Roberts. I feel awkward about my shopping options. Awkward and unnatural, somehow. My normal MO has been interrupted.

And call me a snob (you won't be the first), but when I read that one of my other favorite (non-scrapping-supply) stores was leaving my local mall? Cue awkward, unnatural shopping feelings. Yes: I have been called a snob because Nordstrom was one of my favorite places to shop. Mostly this accusation doesn't bother me because A---I know I'm really not a snob and B---I didn't shop in the super-expensive sections. Just the Brass Plum and Point of View, and always during sales.

It's my mother's fault, really. She took me there for back-to-school shopping for as long as I can remember. Every July, we'd go to the Nordstrom at Crossroads Plaza in downtown Salt Lake because that was the only Nordstrom in Utah. We'd pick out our school clothes during the anniversary sale, and then put them all on lay-away, and then we'd go to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. A few months later, we'd come back up and get everything out of lay-away and start wearing it the next day. It was one of my favorite childhood and teenage experiences. And! Who can forget how it felt to see a few of those iconic Nordstrom boxes, the silver kind with a wide band slipped around its width, under the Christmas tree? Wondering if you were the lucky recipient of the Nordstrom box (even though it didn't always hold something from Nordstrom) was some of the best Christmas anticipation ever!

When, in 2002-ish, Nordstrom came to my local mall, I was so happy. I could just, you know, stop by. Just stop by Nordstrom! Squee! And really: I don't love Nordstrom because I'm snobby. I love it for the things it makes me remember and because I can always find something there that works for me. Haley fell in love with the store, too. So we'd go together whenever we could. Sometimes I could even shop in the same department as her. There was my infamous Nordstrom Meltdown . I bought Christmas gifts and birthday gifts and random I-need-a-new-shirt shirts there. I got friendly with some of the staff and Haley made the Fashion Board. We bought her homecoming dress there (for a smokin' deal, I might add!) and I shopped there this Christmas without melting down once. And then they dropped the bomb: because our county is not full of "high end retail shoppers," Nordstrom left.

Sadness.

And again, I'm full of that awkward feeling. Right now, for example, I need some new spring shirts. I don't know what I wore last year, but this spring I just don't have anything. But can I find any tops I like? No. Everything's flouncy and flowery and has great big sleeves which I feel uncomfortable in. And I just wish I could shop at my Nordstrom. And yes: I could drive to Salt Lake. It's not that big of a deal. But I sort of feel...abandoned, I suppose, by my favorite store. All that criticism I took for being a Nordstrom snob but the store itself doesn't think I'm high-end-retail enough to stick around.

So now I'm just discouraged. Discouraged and hot because I'm still wearing my winter clothes. To cheer myself up, today on my lunch break I decided to run into my only remaining local scrapbook store, Pebbles in my Pocket. I've shopped there since Chris told me about it back in 1995. And I discovered that Pebbles had moved. The store is still in the same building (a small white old house), but now they are just in the basement. The selection is much smaller. It's a little bit depressing to shop in the basement. And it smacks of The End. Is Pebbles going to close down, too?

I don't know. I just know I'm all sorts of bewildered over my recent shopping options. And I'm hoping nothing else goes away. Like...what if my Target closed? Or my local Costco? Or the place I get my photos printed? What about Runner's Corner where I buy my running shoes or the Cotton Shop where I get flannel for baby quilts? It almost seems like all that will be left is a landscape of Walmarts, and at that point? At that point you can just check me into the mental institution because a world of Walmarts is not one I'll ever want to live in.

Yep, I'm sticking to it: "Store Closing" is a sad, sad statement. Even if it's followed by the word "clearance." (Nordstrom, big snobby snobs that they are, didn't even have a store-closing sale.) I'd rather have the store than the going-out-of-business sale, wouldn't you?

Comments

[Britt]

I am always sad when stores close, especially small businesses because I know that someone was trying to follow their dreams by opening a small shop/restaurant, and it didn't work out. It breaks my heart. We have so many vacant buildings in our area, and they just sit there empty for YEARS while all of these new places are being built. It bothers me to think that we already have all of these perfectly good shopping centers that just need a minor face lift, and developers are building new ones. Our local Fresh Market (formerly known as Alberton's) just closed last week, and I am so sad! I didn't shop there very often, but it was always my "in and out" store for when I needed one thing, and I was in a hurry. Now we have one more vacant building (next to a bunch of small shops that are already vacant). But let's go ahead and build a new Traget and Best Buy down the street. Psht!

[Sarah]

For scrapbooking you should try one of my favorites. They had a local scrapbook store in St. George that they had to close now they sell on eBay.

http://stores.ebay.com/Scrapbook-Deals-and-More?_rdc=1

They sell lots at wholesale and they have free shipping. Since they are in utah it only takes a day to get it.