Frankly Name Brands, I Don't Give a Damn

Well, that's not entirely true. There are certain things which I do insist have a name brand, but only because I have not been impressed with the non-brand options. Also, there are certain name brands which I avoid for the same reason. But there are many brand name products which some people feel give them "status", and buy those products for the status, not because the product is good or really suits them. I'm not saying that status brands haven't earned their reputations over the years, just that it can be silly to buy something just because of the label on it.

As my father says, "Why would you pay money for a [insert piece of clothing with brand logo here] to advertise a brand? They should be paying you." I can see his point. Why does a t-shirt or pair of jeans with a "status brand" logo cost so much more than the same t-shirt or jeans without the logo?

One of the things my parents installed in me is the love of a good bargain. In my mind there are a few categories, two of which come to mind immediately:
(1) You see something which you don't necessarily need, but could use, at a price you can't pass up
(2) You are looking for a specific item and when you find it the price is much less than you were expecting

(Something is not a bargain if it's something you don't need and won't ever use but buy anyway because it is such a good price. It will end up sitting around your house cluttering up your closet or other storage location until you decide to get rid of it. At which point, even if you try and sell it, you may not make back what you spent.)

Disclosure: I rarely make it to a "real" mall as the closest ones are 30 minutes away. A large (and expanding, yay!) outlet mall is on my way home from work, so I stop there and look around at least once a month, if not more.

An example for (1): I recently found a fleece shirt I will wear during ski season for 75% off. Did I absolutely need it? No. Would I have bought it at full price? No. Will I use it next winter? Yes. Could I pass it up at the sales price? No.

An example for (2): I have been looking for a new purse for over a year and a half, maybe even two years. My mother also had been looking. At Christmas she gave me an IOU for a purse.

I could give you some general characteristics I wanted and didn't want, but in the end I knew that my purse was out there somewhere, and that I would know it when I saw it. Until recently, like Goldilocks, nothing was ever "just right." Along the way I saw lots of purses - some were too big, some too small. Some were the wrong color, or material, or had too much hardware (chains, and buckles, and dangling metal ornaments, oh my). I looked repeatedly at TJ Maxx, Ross, and Marshalls. I looked at department stores, I even looked at Target and W*l-M*rt. Nothing ever come close to getting every detail right. Every so often I would stop in the local Coach and Dooney & Burke outlets. Yes, the prices make me gag, but at this point in looking it had become a principle that I would not settle for anything less than "just right."

A few weeks back I wandered into Dooney and Burke and saw a purse. It was green, it didn't have an obvious logo or obnoxious hardware, and the size was right. It was also $164.00. I called and left a message with my dad for my mom asking if that was too much to spend (the IOU did not have a price limit). Apparently my dad and she thought I was joking and she didn't call me back. A week later I called and told her I was serious, it was the first purse I had seen in a long time that I thought would work for me, but didn't want to get attached if she thought it was too much. She and I agreed that it was a lot of money, but perfection is hard to find, and I had been looking a long time. Considering I used my last purse for three years (I don't change purses with every outfit, I just don't roll like that), it works out to a reasonable amount per year of use. If I had settled, I could have spent a third as much on a purse and then only used it for a year before deciding I wanted something different.

The mutual decision was made: go take another look at it, see if there is any sort of discount offer through the outlet center for Dooney and Burke, and if looking at it seriously it still works for me, go ahead and get it. Well, I was going to go the next day but life intervened, and it was the following week before I could get back to the store. By that time I was afraid that the purse had been sold, or that I had built it up in my mind and it really wasn't what I wanted after all. Well when I walked in the purse was still in the same location. The color was a little different than I had remembered, but since I had only seen it for 5-10 minutes the first time, that was to be expected - I had remembered it as a deeper forest green, it has more yellow and is more of a medium tone. There was one thing very different though, the price had dropped 25% to $123.

At this point, I knew I HAD to have the purse. And so I bought it and my mother will reimburse me for it. But not because it was by Dooney and Burke. I bought it because I had finally found the purse that was "just right" and I didn't object to the price (over 50% off MSRP). If I had found it at TJ Maxx or Target with no brand on it, I still would have bought it because it was exactly what I wanted (though maybe not at the same price for a non-branded item). The brand wasn't what mattered to me for this purchase, it was the satisfaction of finally finding the purse for which I had spent almost two years looking. I probably would have paid the $164 also, but am very glad I didn't have to!

This is the style of the purse, but not the right color, which is Ivy with white top stitching. I would guess since it was at the outlet that style and color combination has been discontinued. You can see the color here. That should give you an idea of what it looks like. (I'd share real pictures - but I don't have any, and haven't signed up for any of the Internet picture services. Hey, I have a blog, one step at a time, right?)

Has there been anything you have wanted that took you a long time to find, but when you finally did, it seemed like a bargain (regardless of the actual price)? Or, have you ever found something you wanted but didn't absolutely need at such an amazing price you had to purchase it?