At the end of the year I like to make an expedition to Artefact, a local boutique that has seen more ambitious days, and buy one or two work suits during their 30% off sale. Mark agitates for me to go in February when they have a 70% off sale, but I don’t like to wait because by that point I’m unlikely to be able to find a matching jacket and skirt in my size.
So this year I popped in to see what they had. I was the only customer in the store and the racks were full. No shortage of selection. So this year I’ll be waiting for the 70% off sale for the first time. I feel bad about it. If they close, I’ll know it’s my fault.
LOL! And you won’t have ANY jackets and skirts, let alone ones in your size that match.
Comment by Leanne — Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 @ 23:34
It’s such a shame that this current economic mess is so stressful to small, independent businesses — which I infer that Artefact is; am I right? — who are not responsible for the mess in the first place. Creative, community-oriented small businesspeople are so vulnerable to what’s happening right now, with so little power to do anything about it! And in Canada, under the current regime they have little hope that things might improve sooner rather than later. The gall of Harper proroguing Parliament and putting his own interests ahead of everybody else’s!
From a consumer point of view, I’ve found that our choices have already become dramatically limited over the past few years. As we lose more small, independent businesses to this economic mess (and to Harper’s altar) we will have even less genuinely interesting, nice stuff to choose from when we shop.
Elizabeth May is at the UN climate change thing in Poland, and she wrote in her blog that Canada is blocking agreements and asking for exemptions and special consideration (special interest group, anyone?) because the tar sands are so polluting. She also reports that when the news hit internationally that Harper had successfully prorogued Parliament, a number of the youth delegates at the conference actually cried, I guess because Harper was able to hold onto power instead of leaving and letting someone more responsible take his place. She also quotes a British rep who expressed shock at how undemocratic it was that a Prime Minister would prorogue Parliament when he had lost the confidence of the house.
Having been prompted by the McCarthy reference in your dad’s letter to rattle on here, I can provide you with a link to May’s thing:
http://greenparty.ca/en/blogs/7/2008-12-08/depressing-really-depressing-ottawa-poznan
Comment by Susan W. — Thursday, December 11th, 2008 @ 06:07
Eeek! In my sarcastic aside, of course I meant to quip “special interest group, anyone?” instead of “special needs group”, which is what I wrote.
Chalk up my hurried imprecision to the fact that I knew I really shouldn’t have been blogging right now anyway — I got up early to work, not to avoid work by messing about on someone else’s blog!
But Alison, once you’ve (email) invited me to come see an entry, I just can’t help myself!
Comment by Susan W. — Thursday, December 11th, 2008 @ 06:31