I love Pottery Barn, I just don't love their prices. After Christmas, I found myself with three PB gift cards totaling $120 just waiting to be spent in my wallet. Seeing as how the economy could use a little help, I figured I would fulfill my civic duty this afternoon to spend someone else's money on things I don't really need that cost way more than they should (at least IMHO).
Anyway, enter Pottery Barn, the bane of my shopping experience, into the mix. As much as I love just about everything I see there and acknowledge it's good quality stuff, I usually cannot justify buying any of it unless 1) it's on sale AND discounted quite a bit, or 2) some kind soul has generously given me a gift card, which was the case today. Ok, so here's the dilemma: even though I wasn't spending any of my own money shopping with gift cards, I still felt compelled to get the most bang for my buck. The problem with Pottery Barn is that I suffer from the I-know-I-can-buy-something- like-this-at-a-better-price-somewhere-else syndrome that robs me of all joy while shopping there. So I continuously talk myself out of buying anything because a dialogue keeps playing in my head that goes something like:
"They want how much for wall art? I could make that myself. How about some shelves for Jack's room? They want how much for piddly little shelves?? Hmm, I know I could buy those cheaper at Hobby Lobby. What about the guest bathroom...I love that shower curtain, but $70? No way! Hmmm, how about some new pillows for the couch? Oh goody, I could buy a whopping two pillows. There must be something I could find cheaper at Bed Bath and Beyond...."
And on and on it went. I ended up talking myself out of everything I saw! Finally I settled on a nice shower curtain for the kids' bathroom that was on clearance and another shower curtain for the guest bathroom that wasn't on sale (that $70 one I mentioned above). But gosh, what a nice $70 shower curtain it is!
My other beef with Pottery Barn is that they calculate shipping based on the cost of your order, not weight or volume. Well, let's see, since I spent $70 on a shower curtain, it meant that lucky me qualified for a $14 shipping charge. $14....for a shower curtain....that probably weighs a few pounds....Add on the tax to that, and I spent $9o for a piece of fabric to hang up in my bathroom. Yeesh. The other $30 went towards the other shower curtain. So my $120 in gift cards went towards two shower curtains. Whohoo! But seriously, there really wasn't much else I could buy there, even with $120.
But hey, at least my bathrooms are going to look pretty darn classy now! Oh, and don't let my ranting and raving scare anyone off from further PB gift card donations to the Looney family...I'll just have to get used to buying one pillow a year!
BTW-These kind of posts are written very tongue-in-cheek...I know there are far worse things I could be debating over!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I love getting the Pottery Barn Kids catalog in the mail. I've never actually bought anything from there, but my mother-in-law has bought us several things. I really like the kids plates she got us last year (we got a cow and a pig, Kenzie loves them), and am actually thinking of purchasing some more similar ones... maybe they'll go on sale some day.
If a company can afford to give their employees a 40% discount, they are charging their customers way too much!
I suffer from the very same syndromes... I can make it or buy it for cheaper somewhere else. Just wait, maybe with the economy such as it is, they will have a going out of business sale or DRASTICALLY drop their prices to save face and you can finally feel okay about buying their stuff. I gotta see what a $90 shower curtain looks like so you better post a picture when you get it! ;)
omg I am with you $70 for a shower curtain and then $14 to ship it....excuse me I just fainted!
Post a Comment