- More hours
- More money
- A feeling that my work-to-compensation ratio is better than at Hoss's
- Assistant Manager (granted, only a title change...)
- Less stressful
Bringing me to my thoughts of the day while sitting in the Pretzel Gourmet:
I love seeing the elderly. If you've been here before, you've no doubt read my mini-essay on the elderly. Well, here's another reason I love the elderly: elderly couples are adorable! I realize that it's not the most manly or culturally acceptable thing to say, but they are! Look at them next time you get the chance. I've worked at the Pretzel Gourmet for about three years and only this week have I ever really seen elderly couples as cute. But seriously, they are incredibly encouraging to me in that it shows that marriages do work; that no matter how hard society attempts to redefine the marriage and change the roles of husband and wife and destroy the family and community, love still prevails. But, of course, we knew that all along (cf. 1 Corinthians 3).
I hate Express. First of all, the place is as intimidating as Victoria's Secret, Hot Topic, the makeup counter at Bon-Ton and the DEB; I just can't do it. I get near the place and feel like I'm getting dizzy. It's too white, and big, and bright, and it has the most ridiculous music. That said, I want to discuss their mannequins. I'm not talking about what they're wearing (that's for another day). What I want to discuss is the design of their heads. Sure, who looks at the heads. Well, when you're stuck at a failing pretzel business 40-hours a week, you start to become very accustomed to your surroundings. Regardless, they're half-heads; that is, they end at the bridge of the nose and leave off the eyes and brain. I thought about why they would do that, but then I laughed at how truly simple their reasoning is. Express wants you to buy their clothes whether you like them or not, right? So they rely on advertizing to help "convince" you that their product is best. Not the best argument, but hang with me. So if the store wants you to buy their stuff and doesn't care what reasoning you go through as long as you buy stuff from them, their best tactic will be to get you to make an irrational decision. Disagree? Look at the mannequins at any store. They're all "perfect" people. And then look at how they present them under stylish lighting and hung in fancy ways next to other things that would look good with it. It's all very charming and clearly an attempt to convince you to buy something. Also, listen to the music at any big fashion place: it's loud, uptempo, and repetitive. Don't think that gets your heartrate going? Ever feel like you're always in a rush in a clothing store? At last you see where I'm going. Express doesn't want you to have eyes or a brain (figuratively, of course). They want you to make blind, irrational judgments to turn a fat profit. It's that simple. I really can't explain it any better.
That's all for now. I need to make these shorter if I want to update more regularly. Feel free to comment.
1 comment:
I think we need to be careful when deciding the purpose of a store's mannequin purchasing pattern. If you've come up with one reason that sounds good, remember that there might be more options. Any good AP test-taker knows to read all the multiple choice options before selecting one. If there are two that sound really good, then the answer might not necessarily be the first good-sounding option (and remember, the good is always the enemy of the best...but that's another essay).
For example, I could posit the idea that the mannequins have no eyes or brain in order to emphasize that it's not about wit or vision, but that instead it's what you wear that defines your worth.
Thus, we have at least two possibilities (yours and mine) equal in legitimacy and lack of definiteness. Maybe it's a combination of both. Three possibilities. Etc.
I guess in the end you can say, "A contributing factor may be..."
Perhaps no one can ever really say anything anymore. (Allusion to the last day of Civilization and the Arts here, in case you missed it...)
Post a Comment