November28

Get Out the Dillard’s Catalog!

Well, Thanksgiving is over and that means the mad dash for Christmas, Chanukah, Festivus, etc. is on. I already reported that I was going to buy nothing on Black Friday... though my father did buy me new tires for my car, I ate out and saw a movie... but none of those count.

So Black Friday is gone, thank God, but apparently now – TODAY – we have Cyber Monday. Yes, this is the day that most employees return to work and instead of working, they shop online for presents. Good grief.

Aside from all the silly shopping nonsense, now is the time that my family begins pestering me for my Christmas Wish List. I usually have this list ready by Thanksgiving, but this year I’m a bit behind. For those of you who ware wondering, I make a list for several reasons:

• It’s so much easier to shop for someone when they know what you want.
• It’s so much easier to NOT return things when you get what you want.
• I’m anal and prefer specific things.

I find it pretty easy to make a list of things that I want, but this year, I’m struggling with my list. I’ve spent several hours in the past few days looking through catalogs and web sites, trying to find things that I’d like. As of right now, I have seven items listed. Booo. Amidst my struggles, I thought of how I used to make my Christmas Wish List.

Enter the precious, the almighty, the all-knowing Dillard’s Catalog.

I’m talking about the ultimate source for Christmas Wish Lists across the country. I’m talking about the catalog where you would get paper cuts speeding through the clothes section, just to get to the toys section. I’m talking about the catalog that had tons and tons of pictures of creepy kids on crappy outdoor playgrounds. I’m talking about the catalog that couldn’t sell you a cool drum set or skateboard to save your life. I’m talking about the catalog that you would memorize front to back BECAUSE IT WAS THE ONLY F’ING THING YOU COULD LOOK AT FOR CHRISTMAS LIST-MAKING!!!

What the hell? Talk about cornering the market... way to go Dillard’s! But seriously, where did we shop back in the day? Sears, JCPenny and Dillard’s. That’s it. There was no Toys ’R Us or K.B. Toys. For clothes, there was no Old Navy, Gap or J. Crew. For camping supplies, no Campmor or Cabella’s. Just Sears, JC Penny and Dillard’s.

For years that’s all I had to choose from, and now I rarely go to any of those stores. Not the strongest branding efforts, I guess.

+ original post date: November 28, 2005 04:15 PM
+ categories: Family/Friends, Holidays, WTF