My favourite shopping buddy

I love to shop. I’m sure this won’t come as a revelation to anyone who knows me, and I’m certainly not alone in this. The majority of the women I know love to shop. Whether it’s for me or for gifts doesn’t matter, though gifts might be even more fun now that I think about it. Whether I’m browsing in a bookstore, a department store, a clothing store or even grocery shopping gives me a thrill. Usually I shop alone, especially if I shop for myself. The main reason is that I’m a big girl and most of my friends are not, so if I want to spend an hour in a store where there really isn’t something for them to look at, I feel guilty. And it also tends to be quicker if I’m on my own. Having said that, I was recently in the US and one of the things I wanted to do while there was shop.

Clothes shopping in the US is the best. Gotta love it. Here in Europe it seems like most of the plus size clothing is baggy and frumpy. Of course there are exceptions, but there is so little to choose from compared to the US. Let me tell you something else that baffles me. There are European brands or designers who make plus size clothes for the US market, but you can’t find it here. How insane is that? And please don’t try to tell me that there aren’t fat people in Europe. I live here, I know better.

Anyway, I knew I wanted to go shopping and the friend I was visiting was indeed prepared for this. (I say friend, but it seems so inadequate. You know who you are anyway, and exactly what I mean) Not only was he prepared, but he had done research J He knew which malls had which stores, and which ones were the best of those.(For those who live in the Detroit area, Somerset Collections was my favourite of the malls, at least I think that was what it was called.) He patiently went through most of them with me. Spent hours in a couple of stores in particular, and while I was in the dressing room, suddenly another outfit would come over the door with a voice behind it: “How about this one?” He actually found one of the coolest outfits I ended up buying. I’d seen one pair of jeans online that I desperately wanted, but we couldn’t find it in any of the stores, and when I was ready to give up on the whole thing, he soldiered on and managed to find a solution and my jeans. I admit we did do a little shopping for him too, but that was about 5% of the total shopping time. I couldn’t believe how patient and helpful he was, the best shopping partner I’d ever had. I’ve told my mother, my sister and several friends about this, and they all react with stunned disbelief. He damn near qualifies for sainthood in their opinion, and I certainly wouldn’t argue.

I had so much fun shopping that my credit card company called me after a few days just to make sure I was the one doing the shopping. The bill will be huge this month, but at least I’m getting airmiles. I got several outfits, underwear, lots of books, some gifts, but only one pair of shoes. So here’s a warning to my shopping buddy, next time we’re doing some serious shoe shopping!