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11/24/2002 Archived Entry: "Consumer Demands"

Ooo...what a day.

Jen and I got ourselves out of the house and off furniture shopping at a reasonable time, then it was just one frustration after another. Normally, I can handle going shopping just fine, but today all the idiots came out and the stores just plain suck. We were mainly looking for bedroom storage (dressers, chests of drawers, armoires, etc.) and computer desks. Yesterday we bought a bed we really like at Ikea. Solid wood, nice and simple.

We started with The Brick. Everything was overpriced crap, but I kinda knew that would be the case. It seems to me that it should be cheaper and easier to manufacture wood furniture than make fiberboard and coat it will wood-coloured plastic. It also seems to me that if manufacturers were to create plastic furniture that was supposed to look like wood, then they could also create the right textures and proper-looking end-grain to make it just that extra little bit realer. Of course, this is not the case. While we walked out of the store after becoming disgusted at the desks we checked out the living room furnishings and were shocked at the extremely high prices for extremely ugly furniture. The one thing I liked there was a rough-hewn (ie. made out of antiqued pine 2x4s) bar. Definitely making me realize that I should be making my own cool furniture rather than buying the crap from these places.

Next, lunch at Pho Hoa. The best part of the shopping experience.

From there we hit Walmart. . . . . Without sounding exactly like ever other Walmart hater on the planet: Man, does Walmart suck. We arrived, and couldn't get a buggy because they were all busy. According to the 'greeter', they just bought 100 more, but they were all being used. The place was PACKED. Worse than that, it was packed with redneck welfare idiots, crappy parents and kids who feel that the world is their personal plaything and desire to break their toy. Needless to say, we didn't find what we came for, and Jen was extremely disappointed in Canadian Walmarts. I don't blame her. Compared to the Walmart Supercenters in her old stomping grounds, this looked like an overly crowded corner grocery store. We found the little that we could, and proceeded to go to the checkout only to find that the Walmart giftcards that her relatives sent weren't usable in Walmarts in Canada. While I tried to make sure Jen didn't get extremely upset, I was fighting to not find and rip into the store manager. Obviously it's not his fault, some corporate buttholes were making these decisions. I'm planning on giving them a call to find out how we can cash in our wedding gifts. It would really suck to have to travel down to the US to buy furniture, then pay duty and taxes on it coming back.

Since I really didn't want to spend more time crowded in with a bunch of smelly strangers, we drove to the middle of Langley (about 15-20km) to a strip mall where Sears, Mikasa, and Pier 1 Imports live. All are insanely overpriced (we're talking about $189.00 cotton duvet covers here) and had basically nothing that we wanted. I was getting to the point where I would have happily laid down $500 for a decent desk that was the size and style I wanted, but none could be found. I would have paid even more for a cool armoire.

Disappointed we came home. We spent $130 during the whole day and just bought stuff for the kitchen, and didn't even find the stuff we really wanted for that. What bothers me most is that we have a very clear idea of what things we want and those things can't be found anywhere (or we are looking in the wrong places). I don't feel like my demands as a consumer are being met, and that's a shame for the retailers, because I am pretty sure I am not the only one with those wants. Someone could make a killing.

Replies: 3 comments

Tending to agree with you. Hell, I am agreeing like you would not believe. Another place that has now been suggested is Creative Oak & Fine Furniture. At the very least Sunday was instructive. We now know exactly what WE DON'T WANT. Towards the end of the day I though I was going to slap someone silly. Posted by Greg @ 11/25/2002 12:21 PM PST

Not sure about Canada, but here we have actual furniture stores. Granted furniture is expensive everywhere, but mall stores like that are always overpriced. I stay away from Bombay and Pier 1. Jen may know what I am talking about when I say that I got my furniture from Babcock and Farmer's Furniture (very southern furniture stores). Look in the phone book for actual furniture stores. They will not be near as packed either. Posted by crash_ @ 12/15/2002 11:47 AM PST