Why Banana has so much appeal

I’ve been a fan of Banana Republic for a long time and I don’t even like a lot of what they carry in the store. But, I can usually find at least one thing I want anytime I walk into any of their stores… anywhere. I know how much of their clothes fit and I can buy, try at home and return unworn items within 30 days as long as the tags remain and I keep my receipts. Plus, they often have awesome sales. What could be easier?

What I’m not so crazy about is the fact it’s a chain store. I wish I had more time to spend trying on clothes at smaller, local shops and boutiques. Truth be told, I’m often in a rush and I’ve gained some weight, which makes it harder to find something I like that both fits and is affordable. At the end of the day, when I’m in a rush and looking for something reliable and within my budget, Banana is often my default stop.

During our trip to Chicago, although I did a bit of shopping (still another post or two to follow), I didn’t buy any new clothes for fall. So, when a coupon for 40% off appeared in my inbox the other day, I was thought it was pretty darn awesome. Of course I shared it immediately on my Twitter feed. Yep, 40% off on all regular-priced merchandise for two full days in mid-September is a pretty sweet deal.

Like everyone else who works on Bloor Street and can’t afford the likes of Chanel, I scooted on over at lunchtime on day one. The store was absolutely packed with people but low on stock. The line-ups at the cash were not to be believed. It looked like Boxing Day in the 80s! Thanks to the suggestion from Sarah Roger, I had hoped to find a suit but their really weren’t any that cranked my chain. Oddly enough, the fitting rooms were relatively empty. I quickly picked up a few pairs of pants and tried them on to confirm my size.

Then I went on to survey the rest of the store all the while wondering how I’d possibly have time to stand in line for at least 30-40 minutes. I had a client meeting in 15. There was no way. I resigned myself to putting down the pile of pants I was carrying, when out of nowhere came a salesperson. I took a chance and asked if he’d be able to put my items on hold. I told him I’d be back to buy all of them – even at 40% off, Banana was still accepting returns – he told me I could have until the end of tomorrow. Music to my ears. I couldn’t believe it – most stores would have said no way, especially when the stock was so low. I’m sure wearing a Banana Republic dress didn’t hurt my cause either. ;-)

How could I avoid a line up the next day? I needed to devise a plan. Hmm, arrive before noon to try beating the lunch rush. Walk directly to the cashier counter, do not pass go. Do not look at a single piece of clothing. Don’t worry about the clothes on hold.

Get in line, NOW! You’ll find a salesperson while your waiting. Yep, that was my plan. It worked. I was in line for less than 10 minutes, when a salesperson appeared. She was helping another woman in line who looked like she was buying one of everything in the store for her daughters. Be patient. Just a minute. Ah, finally. I had her attention and told her I had several pairs of pants and one sweater on hold. Within three minutes she was back with only a minute to spare before it was my turn to pay. Yahoo!

At the cash, I double-checked the return policy and also learned I could even exchange any of my purchase for the same item in another size at the same price (to be confirmed). I also got a postcard giving me 40% off on one regular-priced item once a week throughout the entire month of October! Talk about service and cultivating customer loyalty. Maybe I’ll still get that new suit yet... and at 40% off.

Have any shopping tricks up your sleeve?

My Shop Crawl haul

Have you ever been to a ChickAdvisor Shop Crawl? Maybe you’ve thought about it but weren’t quite sure about spending $25* to save money and party with a bunch of other women (well, mostly women) who love shopping too.

Last Thursday, I attended the ChickAdvisor Recessionista Shop Crawl. The weather was a perfect ’cause the rain stayed away. My plan was to see how much swag I could walk away with without dropping a penny. Well, things didn’t quite go as planned. The deals were hard to resist and I spent some of my hard-earned cash. At least it wasn’t all on me. With an extra 25% off regular and sale items at Banana Republic, I bought Mr. B a Father’s Day gift too.

Anyway, I thought you’d like to know what I got for free, so I’ve included a photo. As you can see, I came away with a lot of goodies, including a $100 gift certificate towards an overnight stay at the Park Hyatt (another gift for Mr. B), a $25 gift certificate for Stillwater spa, 10% off at Roots online store and lots of beauty products from Maybelline – the event sponsor. All shoppers who completed the crawl got a swag bag with a bunch of stuff from the sponsor, a martini ticket and a lot of surprises on the way. Plus there were games and prizes at the FLOW after party.

Over the next little while, I’ll be coming up with a contest or two so I can share some of this swag with some of you.

This post wouldn’t be complete without a shout-out to Ali, Alex and the rest of the ChickAdvisor team for making the night a success, and especially to Sumaya – we finally met in person and she’s a sweetie.

What did you think of the Shop Crawl? Would you go again? What would you suggest to make it even better?

*Full disclosure: as a media friend, I received a complimentary ticket.

ChickAdvisor Recessionista ShopCrawl

ChickAdvisor is having another exclusive Shop Crawl with a twist... this time around it’s moving uptown to Yorkville.

The ChickAdvisor team has a great evening planned with discounts of up to 25% off at several stores, goody bags and even an after party where you can win great prizes. More details to follow.

Did you go any other ChickAdvisor Shop Crawls? If so, what did you think. Will you go again? Leave a comment.

What?
ChickAdvisor Recessionista Shop Crawl: Bloor/Yorkville
• Guided shopping with a group, or shop at your own pace
• Discounts of up to 25% off at participating boutiques
• Over $100 worth of free swag (each)
• A private after party with a cocktail and snacks at Flow restaurant after the shopping
• A chance to win some awesome prizes including a fashion walk-off for the best outfit purchased that night
• Complimentary makeovers from our expert, Joy David-Tilberg will be available

Where?
Bloor/Yorkville (Toronto) shops including:
• The Body Shop - In addition to providing discounts in store, The Body Shop is giving each of you two full sized products from their Moroccan Rose line.
• Roots and Diesel - 25% off regular priced items and 10% off sale items
• The Stillwater Spa Boutique - 20% off all products they carry in the boutique & each of you will get a $25 gift certificate towards services in the Spa! Brands carried in the boutique include Dermalogica, Kerastase, Babor, Jane Iredale, Pharmacopi and more.
• Over the Rainbow and eleven Boutique - 20% off
• Nine West - No tax on all purchases; get a free Nine West tote worth $25 just for visiting in store
• Calvin Klein Underwear - 25% off regular priced jewelry, watches, sunglasses and hosiery and an additional 25% off sale items
• Banana Republic and The Gap - 25% off regular merchandise
• Capezio - 20% off all regular priced merchandise

When?
Thursday, June 18: 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
plus admission to the after-party at Flow

How much?
Tickets $25 in advance
Buy now!

You still have time to find that perfect little black dress to ring in the new year

Okay, so my story isn’t really about New Years’ Eve but it could be so, read on if you:
a) received an invitation to a last-minute New Years’ Eve party; or,
b) tried on your dress for tomorrow night and it doesn’t fit

There’s still hope. You can find that perfect dress quick and on a budget. Here’s how…

My cousin (she’s more like my baby sister) was married on December 21. I was flattered when she asked me to be in her bridal party and delighted when she told me I could wear any dress as long as it was black. Sounds like a no brainer, right? Well not exactly...

I already owned a perfect little black dress. Well, perfect once I altered it to fit my slimmer body and raised the hemline. My dressmaker who usually does awesome job, charged me $25 – a real bargain and much cheaper than buying a new dress. I’m not sure why but I waited until two weeks before the wedding to have it altered. Then I did another crazy thing and waited until the night before my flight out to Vancouver for the wedding to try the dress on. Big mistake!

This time, my dressmaker didn’t do such an awesome job and the dress didn’t fit! It was already 8 p.m. I was leaving in the morning. Yikes! I ran over to my neighbour’s house. She is a wonderful seamstress. She took one look at the dress on me and told me I’d ruin it if I tried letting it out. I ran over to another neighbour’s house to try on her two black dresses – one was too big, the other one was too small. I was starting to feel a bit like a brunette Goldilocks.

Stores were closing in about 45 minutes but I still had time to scoot over to Yorkdale. I ran into Banana Republic, Zara and H&M. I didn’t have time to try anything on so I made sure to go to stores with flexible return policies. When I got home I tried everything on and decided I’d take one of the dresses from Banana as a back up. It was the best of the bunch and the fit, although not perfect, was okay. It was also on sale from $275 to $115 – the price was right!

I still wasn’t sure about the dress. I literally had a couple hours in Vancouver to shop. I went to Club Monaco and found a great dress – it was on sale for $129 less 20%. It was much more my style than the back-up dress. I was so lucky they had it in my size and it was the perfect fit!

After Christmas, I returned all the other dresses (I think I had about six). I also checked Club Monaco to see if my dress had been further reduced. Like everything else on sale in the store, the price hadn’t changed. As of Sunday, they still had lots of evening dresses in several sizes.

So, if you’re still looking for that perfect dress to wear this New Years’ Eve, don’t despair. You still have time and there are plenty of bargains still out there.

Happy New Year!

Meet my new friend Marc as in Marc Jacobs

I needed a new full-length winter coat. I have the great big, warm hooded down coat and I decided it was time to get something more stylish that I could wear day or night, for casual and more formal occasions.

Maybe I left if a bit too late. Maybe with the sagging economy, manufacturers and retailers didn’t think people would be laying out the bucks for new outerwear this season. Whatever it was, the pickings were slim.

Kathryn and Rayanne were exchanging tweets about where they bought their new winter coats. With no time to go downtown, I searched all over Yorkdale. I had seen a nice looking coat on the rack at Banana Republic. Unfortunately, it didn’t look good on me. I’d seen some nice coats on the cheap at H&M. The fabric felt a bit scratchy though. I debated whether or not it was worth buying on for $100 that I’d be tired of after a year and passed in the end.

Zara had some great looking coats in the same price-range as Banana. Problem is by mid-Saturday afternoon, they’re all picked over and several coats had buttons hanging by a thread. Sorry, Zara, sloppy merchandising even on a busy day is a big turn off, particularly when it comes to high-priced items.

So, on a whim, I dragged Mr. B. to Holts. Except for my Bobbi Brown make-up must-haves, I haven’t shopped there in ages. I took a quick look around at the sale racks scattered throughout.

Then I saw it, hanging on a sale rack behind the cash in the contemporary fashions department.. I found the perfect navy coat on sale for 30% off. It was Marc by Marc Jacobs. Believe-it-or-not, on sale, it didn’t cost much more than the coats I had seen at the chain stores. Well worth an extra $100 for a designer coat with far more attention to detail. Don’t ya think?

I usually stay away from navy but I liked it and besides, the same style in black wasn’t on sale. I decided to splurge. I’m glad I did.

What have you splurged on lately?

FYI, Holts had another markdown a few days after I bought my coat. I was surprised to learn they don’t offer price adjustments. (I wonder if their policy will change as Canadian retailers start feeling the hit of the recession?) On the bright side, my coat is still selling for the price I paid and now the black one is on sale too.

Black studded cuff bracelet: a real steal

While Mr. B was in line at Banana Republic paying for two great casual summer shirts at 60% off, I found this amazing chunky black studded cuff bracelet on sale. It originally sold for $65 so for $12.99 (that’s 80% off), I couldn’t resist.

There are some incredible bargains this time of year. Have you had any great finds lately?

My new black pants – the saga of a spaz

I spent a weekend in Montreal last April. It coincided with a Banana Republic promotion. They offered a discount based on your total purchase price (sale stuff included). So I went for the max. and spent just over $200 and got a $50 discount.

This was my first big spend since my weight loss and I needed some new work clothes. The highest-ticket item was a sleek pair of cuffed black pants with a flat front. They were a bit long so as soon as I got home, I paid a visit to my dressmaker and had them shortened.

Okay, so the first day I wore them to work, I also wore a new pair of spike-heeled shoes from Town Shoes. I had a lunchtime appointment downtown. I had no idea those heels were like knives but they were. By the time I got back to the office, not only did they get caught in a grate and destroyed on Bloor St. but they sliced through the cuffs on my new black pants 3 times! Yes, I’ll admit I’m a bit of a spaz. ;)

So, back to the dressmaker I went. She did her best to salvage my poor new black pants but I lost the cuff and gained some additional seams. Under a magnifying glass, they looked like a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. But, before I could even wear my pants in this new configuration, I injured my hip and was on a forced six-week sabbatical from high heels.

So, off to the dressmaker I went again this weekend. I had my black pants shortened to just the right length (and no more funny stitching). Now, I can wear them with my new black flats. Finally!

By the way, Town Shoes covered the cost of repairing my shoes, no questions asked. Awesome!

Banana Republic accidentally appealing

Last month I wanted something new to spruce up my wardrobe. Still in the midst of the NutriSystem Challenge, I wasn’t ready to take the plunge and buy a new pair of pants but I wanted a new jacket (or something like it).

While browsing through Banana Republic, a smart and tailored cardigan caught my eye. (I bought a beige one but I could only find a yellow one to show you.) I looked at the price and was in disbelief. The grouping wasn’t on a sale rack yet every one was marked down to $39.99 from $130. I tried it on and loved the way it looked – the comfort of a cotton sweater with the professional look of casual blazer all in one. And, the price was definitely right.

Fast forward to April 20. I was in Montreal and Banana Republic was having a great sale with reductions based on the total purchase price (e.g. spend $200 and get $50 off). I did some damage that I’ll tell you about later. On my way out of the store, I spotted the cardigan. Guess what? It was back up to regular price. Yesterday, I returned to the Yorkdale location and sure enough, it was back up to $130. I suspect the $39.99 price tag was an error. Oh well, their loss my gain. Shh! Please don’t tell them.

UPDATE: I was at Banana Republic yesterday. They have lots of great items on sale at terrific prices and the cardigan is now on sale for $69.00. I’ve only seen it in beige and emerald green.