Marshall's

Just got in from a "workout and tan" session which turned into a "spend $80 at Marshall's" session.  I was actually trying to remember how far down Chipotle is (love love love) when suddenly, like a beacon from...below...was a Marshall's sign.  Below, because you go down the escalator to get to it.  Have to say not as good as the one back home, but I found just what I needed.  And 2 dresses that I didn't need, but who cares?

I'm glad there are good stores and better stores and necessary stores (like Marshall's) nearby.  Of course the "magnificent mile" is only 8 or 9 blocks, and I think Neiman-Marcus is on "my" corner, meaning it's a straight hike there and a straight hike back.  Yay! 

I only wish there were a bigger market nearby.  Trader Joe's is about 7 blocks away - not too far, but once I get in there I want to buy more than I can easily carry back without ending up in a cab.  And I refuse to take a cab 7 blocks.  That would be like, well, like.......I can't think of anything to compare it to at home, because no one ever walks anywhere.  Why walk when you can drive?  And park?  Without risking a cabbie running you over or being stuck in traffic for more time than you could have walked there anyway?  Besides, it's just not as cool back home to walk around town as it is here.  Unless you live in 5 points.  :)

But, I digress.  Marshall's.  Marshall's is the kind of place that is completely low-class, in the way that people with money wouldn't DARE admit to shopping there, but do.  Just a couple of steps above Wal-Mart - and you see some pretty good characters in Marshall's, too.   But, you can put it in the middle of the city in the basement of a high-rise a block from Bloomingdales, and suddenly it becomes okay.  Still messy, with tons of clothes from the Chadwick's catalog and the Wet Seal or whatever the teeny bopper store is, but location has brought it up out of the basement to a level of acceptable shopping.

After all, you can buy Cole Haan shoes there for only $99, and a Lucky purse for $80 (I know because I did it - the purse, not the shoes), or a completely trashy tee shirt for $7.  And hell, to top it all off, you can pick up needed kitchen items or linens, along with simply irresistible knick-knacks that you're probably paying more for than you should, but it just looks so neat.

I am not ashamed to admit I shop at Marshall's.  I've spent many a Saturday bonding with my daughter as we filtered through shirts and dresses and laughed at underwear and tried on shoes and spent a totally unreasonable amount of time (and money) perusing each aisle in the household goods section.  Her husband will attest to that.  Maybe it ain't Bloomingdale's, but it's a lot cheaper to bond at Marshall's - and a lot more fun.