So here goes. My first reaction was, that’s very unfair and bordering on discrimination. My further thoughts were, well when you’re in a restaurant you pay more for a main meal than you do for an entree because it is more food, same with a small coffee vs a large coffee. So in the case of plus-size clothes you are using more material. Right? Quite possibly, but is it really necessary for larger women to have to pay more for their clothes?

Actually no, I don’t think it’s ok. I passed this question around the office guys and they made the point that  there is no difference in price in mens’ clothing from a Small to a XXXL so there you go, the store in question isn’t discriminating against larger people they are discriminating against larger women.

The article claimed that the store normally absorbed the extra costs for plus-sized clothing, but occasionally had to pass in onto the consumer. So why not always pass it onto the consumer in the first place and then that’s just how it would be and that’s what people would expect, as opposed to not doing it and then introducing it and upsetting people?

Am I a plus-size person I hear you ask. No I’m not. So does that mean I don’t have the right to comment on this issue, because maybe it doesn’t bother plus-size people? Maybe? So why don’t you tell me what you think!

Firstly, we both found ourselves getting very annoyed with the extremely slow pace people chose to walk at around the shopping centre. I didn’t think we were ‘hooning’ around, but maybe we missed the memo that you now walk around a shopping centre abnormally slow?

Secondly, we walked into one shop and found 5 shop assistants in quite a small jewellery store all standing around talking. I had to squueze past one of the assistants sitting on a chair to have a look at the rest of their jewellery. Did he move or apologise. Gosh, of course not, they were too busy chatting. Not one person came to help and we left with John exclaiming, I wouldn’t let you by anything from there just on prinicpal the way they acted!

So while we or more specifically, I, still managed to spend money on shoes that I NEEDED and on clothes that I could have done without but WANTED, the whole shopping experience just didn’t seem how it used to be!

Sadly I think we have become accustomed to the after hours Country Road sales where there’s only a hand full of people in the shopping centre and limited people in the store. Maybe we just like feeling ’special’! (Detect sarcasm!)

So is it just us, are we the minority, or heaven forbid are we getting old and cranky and can’t stand all the teeny-boppers who think it’s cool to hang around shopping centres for no apparent reason other than to ‘hang’! Or is going shopping just not the same anymore?

One of the latest offerings from Tar-jay

To some people this means the day’s of expensive designer labels and regular shopping trips are dwindling. But for some people cheap chic is what they’ve always done!

I recently read an article about Target or  Tar-jay as we love to call it, becoming Australia’s version of Britain’s Topshop. The opening line read: “It’s official. Target has become our answer to Britain’s Topshop”. The words, “has become”, made me think. I have no problems what so ever admitting that for years I have shopped at Target, excuse me, sorry, Tar-jay! Never mind the GFC, just try being a Uni student.

(For those who aren’t familiar with Topshop, it is basically Britain’s answer to Target, maybe a little further infront in terms of fashion and has celebrity designers such as Kate Moss, just like Target did here with Stella McCartney.)

So I find the whole thing a little bit funny that it’s taken a CRISIS to bring Target into the Spotlight. Maybe it’s the once Target snobs that would now like this PR story to take off to justify that during these tough times it’s ok for them to be decked out in an ensemble from Tar-jay!

What are your thoughts? Have you changed your spending habits since the crisis, because you had to, or thought you should? Or are you a regular bargain hunter anyway?