I'm betting on a resurgence in JC & Sons Cabinetmakers now that they've set up an Etsy page. 

I’ll have to do some research on the Dutch East India company, see how that ended up.

Aww thanks! I feel the same about every one here! It’s kind of crazy how much anonymous commenting can feed one’s need for contact, in a way that regular social media can’t. Maybe it’s just much more honest? Facebook is a highlight reel of curated joy, and most people are scared to be honest on there. I’d rather come…

Yes! The other day I did a socially distanced hang with some friends for the first time in months, and I was so happy to be there! Though I was also having a difficult time just formulating conversation... so out of practice!

I’ve always found it antiquated that you have to buy a large wardrobe of fancy clothes to go to work when your job has nothing to do with clothing or your physical appearance. And it’s very unfair to women because their clothes are more expensive and harder to choose and because they’re expected to have more outfits…

Lord & Taylor! We’d almost never go in there at the mall. We were firmly in the Sears/JC Penney price range, and we knew it. But mom dragged me in there a few times when I was looking for formal dresses. I felt like an imposter! So I have a tiny twinge of nostalgia reading about this, but only because my mom spoiling…

“without smelling like a European discotheque.” *snickers*

I advise parents to take their kids to department stores and big indoor shopping malls so they can see this stuff while it still exists. Take pictures to save the memory. Do it while you still can.

I don’t know if it would work in such a huge country, but my tiny, poor country (Portugal) did exactly that and we have some of the most encouraging numbers in the EU (although the economy will suffer, but for anyone who thinks the economy won’t suffer if the powerful allow for a bloodbath to happen for the sake of…

Same stuff you can get everywhere else at a nice markup because our stores are pretty. 

The having to walk through cosmetics gauntlet 8n department stores is the absolute worst! I always feel nauseous by the time I make it into the rest of the store. 

“This virus has produced an uncertainty that will permanently change our way of life for years.”

Incidentally, the Hudson’s Bay Company is 450 years old (it was started as a trading post, serving the beaver pelt trade in the pre-Canada north). It will be interesting to see whether it manages to survive.

I don’t remember the last time I went to a store for anything but prescriptions and groceries. I’m on a first name basis and tip/give xmas & birthday bonuses to my delivery people. They’re my lifeline to the world outside my house.

No cure for willful ignorance, unfortunately.

I’ll admit that I just don’t want to leave the house anymore to shop in person. I don’t. It has nothing to do with COVID-19 either. I’ve been like this for at least ten years.

This could have all been over months ago! Close the borders, everyone stays home except absolutely essential workers for a whole month or 2, we all wear masks for 2 or 3 months. This would be over.

It’s amazing, the things that made sense in the Before Times. Big mergers, deals, the “retail landscape...”

We’ve got too way too many malls in the US. I think part of this is the retail market self correcting. When the pandemic happened the local news listed all the malls that were closing in the county where my family lives and half of them I’d never heard of. And that doesn’t include the strip malls and town centers.

The first step to getting to the other side is accepting the landscape will be very different AC. This virus has produced an uncertainty that will permanently change our way of life for years. Until enough of us decide to follow the guidelines that stop the spread, every step forward will result in steps backward as…