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Jan. 17th, 2016 06:44 am Well, it's a good thing yesterday was my day of capitalist debauchery, because it's subzero temperatures in Chicago today.
Yesterday went well -- I struck out at Macy's when shopping for a new saucepan, but that was because I had some pretty specific criteria. I wanted a 3qt saucepan in steel-clad aluminum (rather than teflon), with a see-through glass lid and one long handle instead of two short curved ones. Macy's had exactly one which fell in the middle of that venn diagram, but it was $50 on sale, and that's about $20 more than I wanted to pay, even on sale.
Target, on the other hand, had something to my exact specifications for $26. Also, Target doesn't enrage me by sorting their store by brand rather than by item. I realized one reason I get really anxious in Macy's is that every brand has its own area in the store -- all the menswear might be, say, on the second floor, but within that floor you have to look five different places to see all the jackets. Which makes sense in terms of sales -- it makes it harder for the customer to compare prices and therefore more likely they'll buy what they want instead of what's least expensive. But in an era where we can sort-by-relevance with a click of a button online, that technique's not gonna last a whole lot longer. One of the main reasons the big box stores do better than traditional department stores, even carrying much the same goods, is that they take way less time to shop through.
Anyway, enough marketing dissertation. I got my pot and a few sundries and took myself off to Russian Tea Room, which I've been meaning to try for literally thirteen years, since the first time I saw it while visiting Chicago for grad school auditions in 2002. I finally decided to test-drive it as somewhere to take my parents next time they’re in town – I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t a creepy dump or anything. For the record, it’s totally not a creepy dump. (Not that I mind creepy dumps if the food is good, but my folks are picky.) White tablecloth, nice lighting, great Russian music played at reasonable noise levels. Not cheap, but the food seems worth it.
And thus home. I did not steam a loaf of bread yesterday, as intended, but I'm going to make one today. I haven't decided whether I want to try steaming bread again or whether I want to make a loaf of onion-cheddar bread before the green onions in my fridge wilt. I could do both, but oh god, that's SO MUCH BREAD.
Yesterday went well -- I struck out at Macy's when shopping for a new saucepan, but that was because I had some pretty specific criteria. I wanted a 3qt saucepan in steel-clad aluminum (rather than teflon), with a see-through glass lid and one long handle instead of two short curved ones. Macy's had exactly one which fell in the middle of that venn diagram, but it was $50 on sale, and that's about $20 more than I wanted to pay, even on sale.
Target, on the other hand, had something to my exact specifications for $26. Also, Target doesn't enrage me by sorting their store by brand rather than by item. I realized one reason I get really anxious in Macy's is that every brand has its own area in the store -- all the menswear might be, say, on the second floor, but within that floor you have to look five different places to see all the jackets. Which makes sense in terms of sales -- it makes it harder for the customer to compare prices and therefore more likely they'll buy what they want instead of what's least expensive. But in an era where we can sort-by-relevance with a click of a button online, that technique's not gonna last a whole lot longer. One of the main reasons the big box stores do better than traditional department stores, even carrying much the same goods, is that they take way less time to shop through.
Anyway, enough marketing dissertation. I got my pot and a few sundries and took myself off to Russian Tea Room, which I've been meaning to try for literally thirteen years, since the first time I saw it while visiting Chicago for grad school auditions in 2002. I finally decided to test-drive it as somewhere to take my parents next time they’re in town – I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t a creepy dump or anything. For the record, it’s totally not a creepy dump. (Not that I mind creepy dumps if the food is good, but my folks are picky.) White tablecloth, nice lighting, great Russian music played at reasonable noise levels. Not cheap, but the food seems worth it.
And thus home. I did not steam a loaf of bread yesterday, as intended, but I'm going to make one today. I haven't decided whether I want to try steaming bread again or whether I want to make a loaf of onion-cheddar bread before the green onions in my fridge wilt. I could do both, but oh god, that's SO MUCH BREAD.
