Sale, No Sale

I'm back on my soapbox today after not having written much of anything during the holidays.  A couple of days ago I was reading the news headlines on the internet when one particular headline caught my attention and got on the one nerve I had left as Maxine would say.  I won't name the two shops involved to anyone who is trying his/her best not be wasteful or selfish.  I'll only say, (and I'm sure you'll know which shop I'm referring to) that there will be few, if no American shoppers, who haven't patronised one of these two department stores.
Paul McCartney's daughter has a line of clothing in the other.  The name of these two shops is not important nor who designs clothing for them.  What is important is what has happened to lots of unsold items of clothing.  Bags and bags of clothes were found with the sleeves cut off and holes deliberately made in shoes so that they couldn't be worn.  What a clever idea!  It probably took all of 30 seconds to reach the conclusion that because these were losses which they couldn't benefit from neither could anyone else! And how long would it have taken to make the things 'ready' to be disposed of?  More money foolishly wasted.

One of the shops has since promised to donate their unsold merchandise in the future, but this has got me thinking.  Just because two well- known shops were named in the article doesn't mean that others aren't guilty of the same crime.  It just means that they got caught trashing perfectly useful (for somebody) stuff.  I've always wondered what happened to all the coats and shoes, etc that weren't sold, but I didn't think about it enough or I imagined they saved these things back to sell in the future.  I imagined!  I can only hope that there's a lesson to be learned here by both businesses and consumers. Donating unsold items to charity is a logical feel good solution.

January is the beginning of a new year for many of us.  It's also the first of the two big sales in Spain.  I don't buy a lot of clothes because my job doesn't require me to spend a lot of money on my wardrobe.  Still, I have too many clothes I'm sure.  However, because winter is finally upon us, I'm contemplating buying one of those puffy trench coats so that I'll be able to face that cold Arctic wind even if I do look like Buzz Lightyear or a poop-coloured rubber raft (that's the only colour the one that is 50% off comes in) - that is, if they still have them in my size. If not, I can, and often do, wear layers and layers.