Paying Retail

I don't enjoy hunting for clothes, digging through piles of shirts to find one I like. Spending hours combing the racks of discount stores is not how I like to kill time. And I get grouchy the minute I enter an outlet mall. However, I do enjoy saving money which is why I like consignment stores so much, especially well- curated ones such as Lola and Renaissance in Santa Barbara, Traci and Laura's in Solvang, and Finders Keepers in San Luis Obispo. Wonderful Alpha Thrift stores in Santa Barbara and Goleta are also well-organized and pleasant places to shop.

In this month's Esquire magazine, David Granger makes the case for paying retail. Many people (including my husband!) equate paying retail with getting ripped off. But Granger says this about our relentless pursuit of deals: "We settle for things we kind of maybe would consider owning. Services we might maybe someday use. We compete for crap at 60 percent off."

I urge you to read Granger's short column and to give some thought to the true meaning of a bargain: getting a real discount on something you really want.