Vortex of Tide Detergent Choices

People have written about this before, and I know I’m not offering anything too novel here, but I was at the grocery store the other night, in a hurry and very eager to end the shopping trip, when I was remembered the last item on my list – laundry detergent. I have been a loyal Tide shopper as long as I can remember. My parents bought Tide. I buy Tide, even when I was in college. It’s not the most economical brand to buy, but I’m no laundry expert, and it just feels like something you don’t want to mess up with buying cheap – you could end up altering your clothes (far more expensive than the investment in good detergent). But last night, I was overwhelmed with a SEA of tide. Choices in size, scent, cause, intended use – front loaders, high efficiency machines. I was so frustrated. Not least of all was the difficulty to understand the true price/value of their product. So many different price points, with so many different variables left me blind to what was causing one container to be more expensive than another. While I might pay more for the larger size, I am not going to pay more for the scent of Febreze. I was so frustrated, I picked up a very small size of the exact product I had bought last time, but vowed to go to Costco and buy a different brand next time to get the most value. I can stand for some level of consumer confusion – but NOT when it comes to price!

An Early Adopter for Once in my Life

Today, I'm actually going for it... and upgrading my "free manufacturers phone" to the I-Phone 3GS. The Guy assures me that such a drastic change is going to change my very personality....

Only time shall tell, but I guess I think of myself highly enough to challenge him that this won't be the case. I will report back in a week or so to tell all....

Guide to "Inexpensive" Makeup Picks

I have officially switched out of my $30 bucks a pop nice MAC foundation and back to drug store brands… and am quite jubilant about it. One little recessionista step for me. I stumbled upon the April InStyle feature on Best Beauty Buys for 2009 on the treadmill this morning and instead of rushing out to the mall to buy more urgently needed makeup, I scampered over to Target.

They published a shopping list for the category, and I have listed the only items in their “inexpensive” category below, i.e. what you can find in the drug store. (A lot of the best beauty buys are apparently $100+, not so recessionista friendly. Even the inexpensive picks average around the $8-10 range, which depending on your priorities... isn't always so attractive.)

LIPS: Loreal Paris Colour Riche, Revlon Super Lustrous, Maybelline Shine Seduction

EYES: Loreal Paris Voluminous Mascara (on my list), Loreal Paris HIP Powder (I can vouch – I love this stuff!)

CHEEKS: Loreal Paris Bare Naturale Mineral Doux

FACE: Max Factor Erace Cover Up (on my list), Loreal Paris True Match Foundation (what I bought tonight!)

Why Women Don't Rule the World

I’m going to need a new suit for business school (and later) job interviews. My only suit is from my senior year of college when I was frankly, a bit of a porker, left over from rowing crew and excessive amounts of beer-drinking. Now that I’m marginally svelter, I couldn’t keep the thing up with a belt. So, I started doing research on how much I can expect to spend, and I ran across this bit by Laura Solon, a UK writer from the Guardian and she is just irresistible. Am now convinced that I should raise my children in London, so that they will be just as witty and charming:

Why don't women rule the world? Is it because we live in a patriarchal society that forever perpetuates the glass ceiling? Is it because women don't support successful women? I think it's both, but I tell you what doesn't help women in their cause: women's suits. Hillary Clinton's peach trouser suit. Deborah Meaden's beige number from the Dragons' Den promos. All the ones worn by women in the government. They are awful. Really awful. They are so awful that they could be a contestant on The Apprentice, where they'd annoy Margaret so much she'd swear.

The law of women's suits is: it doesn't matter how much a woman spends on a suit, she will almost always end up looking as if she bought it from a Next Seconds shop where it was nestling on a rail between a chenille turtle-neck and a plus-sized taupe thong.
The only way to wear a suit is if a) it's Chanel and b) you're a Parisian woman who weighs six ounces and sleeps safe in the knowledge that if global warming continues and lions start living in France and she's chased by one, she could save herself by hiding in the gap between her fridge freezer and the wall.

Maybe one day I will care about the brand name of my suit. I am going to business school in the next few years, and despite my thoughts on the matter, maybe I *will* lose my soul after all, and become the kind of person who has a comment on the suiting collections at Bergdorf vs. Saks. My actual price-hunting revealed I should probably budget around $400 at least. My two winners:

J.Crew $460 = $225 jacket + $130 pant + $100 pencil skirt
Bannana Republic $400 = $200 jacket + $100 pant + $80-100 pencil skirt

A quick search of Nordstroms.com revealed lots of Solon-described numbers and Bloomingdales.com revealed some sharp Theory and DVF looks that were way out of my price range ($800), and Chanel is just not an option. Any other ideas for finding a great looking suit under $500?

Also, a bit later in the article, Solon talks about her lack of financial knowledge and proposes:

scrapping sex education - just force all teenagers, boys and girls, to wear women's suits and thoughts of sex will all but disappear - and then replace it with finance education.

Cheers to that!

Earning / Shopping. Cool.

I recently purchased from one of the promos they give you on E-Miles and the airline miles did show up in my Northwest account, and on time to boot. So I wanted to give a Consumer Reports style shout-out to E-Miles. Sometimes I’m skeptical that I’m missing something in the fine print, but I needed this anyway, so it was a worthwhile experiment. If you haven’t heard of it – definitely sign up. They give you airline frequent flyer miles in exchange for your time viewing ad messages and quick 3-question surveys. Very worth it, even for just a break in the workday.

Secondly, I’ve gotten hooked on this website – Shop it to Me. A friend of mine met the guy who launched it out in San Francisco and it seems to be growing quickly and doing well. The premise is that you select the brands and stores you like up front, and then you get an email newsletter two times a week with links to individual products on sale. I’m not a big online shopper, but I do like it for one reason: gives you more visibility to what types of things are on sale if you do a little research (implication: a reminder that you should never really pay full price for things in the retail space). One setting I would adjust is the price ceiling for items they show you. I keep lowering mine, so I won’t be tempted by anything over a couple hundred bucks. And I invited enough friends to get a free $10 gift certificate to use on the site. Fun!

Trading Up and Down

Target has done a fabulous job of capitalizing on the true consumer insight that people like to trade down in some areas so that they can save their money and trade up in others. People can do both at retailers like Target. But they're also mixing the concept across retailers. Shop for home decor at Target so you can shop for handbags at Gucci. You get to value what you value, and both retailers win. As a marketer, I've thought about this a lot in my professional life. Brand loyalty is irrational behavior, and yet, one of the most normal behaviors in our consumer culture. However, I rarely think about it in my personal life.

Where I've Traded Down:
Shampoo / Beauty Products - I buy Pantene shampoo instead of Aveda now, and drugstore makeup for the most part. The only place I trade up in makeup is foundation which is MAC. $30 a pop is expensive, but I felt like it was time I looked a little more grown-up (I used to wear tinted moisturizer only).
Coffee - Even though I'm really a coffee fanatic, I drink enough of it that I can't afford the premium stuff, so I've been sampling lots of private label (Archer Farms and Lunds&Byerlys).

Where I've Traded Up:
Moleskine – These notebooks range from $10-20 and yet I purchase them religiously when I have all the notebooks and legal pads I could ever desire in our office supply cabinet at work!
Cascadian Farm Organic Jam – I am a breakfast person. This is my toast indulgence. The purest, most natural flavors, but at a huge premium to regular Welch’s.