Friday, April 3, 2009

CONSIGNMENT REJECTION

I was so proud of myself yesterday for finally taking in the loads of clean, gently used clothes to consign at the neighborhood thrift shop.
I had two shopping bags full of cool boys' clothes that my son refused to wear because they didn't say RAMONES or GOPHERS or TWINS.
"Uh, we only take clothing on hangers," she snapped through her wad of Juicy Fruit.
I wasn't in the most charming of moods as it was the end of the day, and I had accomplished very little, and now this whole undertaking was going sour.
"Oh, sorry, I'll take them home and put them on hangers," I flatly responded Roseanne-style, hoping passive-aggressively that she would see the folly in her controlling statement. "The last time I was here, you gave me back all of the hangers." Their process makes no sense, it's just a ploy to stand superior over we, the lowly consigners.
She didn't take all of my stuff. Not by a long shot. In fact she didn't take some of the stuff that a MUCH BETTER consignment shop had already taken (but had since gone out of business) -- and this particular shop is, most definitely, the last stop in consigning before donating to Goodwill.
"So you don't have any interest in boys' dress shirts?" I wondered, blushing, while gathering my jilted items.
"We do if they're IRONED," she spat with icy malice, "No one wants to iron."
I resisted the energy it would take for a bitch-on-bitch show down.
No kidding no one wants to iron, but I most certainly don't want to iron something I was hoping to get rid of that was slightly ruffled from the car ride from my house to her crappy store. Is it worth the fifty-cents? Well, philosophically somehow, yes.
Ridiculed, I slunk out and placed my not-good-enough fashion finds in the back seat. The sense of rejection washing over me was inconsistent with the situation, and the way I was letting it blacken my mood was silly. Why, I wonder, is it such an awful feeling when your clothing gets rejected by a consignment shop? Probably because you experience buyer's remorse all over again, or maybe it's the realization that something you know damn well to be very cool is not seen as such by someone with bland taste. I know thrift shoppers, and believe you me lady, you passed off some treasures. Oh well, your loss. I'll just never get back that chunk of time I wasted trying to procure the stuff for re-sale, and I never should've bought more stuff than we possibly have time/occasion to wear to begin with, which boils down to my Shopping Problem glaring smugly back at me. Oh well, Goodwill's much cooler anyway. Right?

5 comments:

Karaoke Annie said...

Awesome blog! Love it!

Anne

Lisa I said...

Its the economy... the consignment people think that you are trying to sell your stuff because you are desperate and about to become homeless, so they have something they can feel superior about. Pretty s*it*y, really.

Tina Laurel Lee said...

When I get a writing rejection I don't feel nearly as toadish as I do when I get a clothing rejection. I go and pick out my nicest stuff and then they thumb their nose at it. I can feel this blog entry.

For some reason my reader has not been finding your feed. Hopefully I can fix that.

XO

Tiny said...

Hi Laurie. My name is Bob and I am a huge Zuzu's Petal's fan. I used to go see you guys (meaning gals) all the (4) times in Philadelphia. (PLAY SHIPWRECKED!...I would yell) I just read "Petal Pusher" and seriously could not put it down....which is saying something because my short attention span doesn't allow many books into my life. But I read yours in about a day. Try to make it brief here. The one part that really got to me was hearing that someone came up to you and said of The Music of Your Life..."That album sucked hard"...and of course what Jim M. said about it.

I just wanted to say that I was vacationing in San Francisco (and scoping it out as a place to live) on the Tuesday in August of 94 that the CD came out.(yes, they had it at Tower Records on the day of release) It was the soundtrack to my trip...I loved it and probably listened to it 75 times in 10 days. I moved here 9 months later and still live here 14 years later. After reading the book, it's been the soundtrack of my life again this week. Thanks for a great read, 2 great CDs, Shipwrecked/Babblin Mules, Brand New Key, letting me backstage at Adam Ant in Philly and so many great memories. Sorry to leave this as a comment on your blog, but I just wanted to say thanks. You, UM..., rock.

Song of the Day From Molly said...

Is this the place on 50th that smells like musty cat pee?