tiff's+editorial

How much is too much? I walked into a store the other day, a store named “Abercrombie and Finch.” Just browsing through the shelves and tables, my friend and I noticed something odd. I picked up a nice button-down blouse that she (my friend) happened to like. She asked me what the price was. She had all intentions on buying the garment until I informed her that the shirt, the plain purposely wrinkled long sleeved T-shirt, was in fact $80.00. Not joking. While my friend went off into a tangent on how she only had enough money to cover the ridiculously priced jeans she wanted instead of the blouse, I pondered as to why the item was so expensive. I could just walk down the street to target and get a similar shirt. Then it dawned on me that we were in “Abercrombie”. As hours passed I continued to think about the way our society has been molded. How the retail industry tricks us into thinking something is better or more worthy because it has a good name or interesting logo glued or stapled onto the front or side of it. Or maybe I was just thinking about how they could get a person to spend $80.00 on a plain wrinkled T-shit because it was from a “designer brand” (and yes, my friend did purchase the shirt and jeans. She used her mom’s card). I wondered why this had happened, when, how had this started. I thought maybe because they were names that we as the consumer trust that they offer products that are made with quality care that is the reason that we buy them. Yet still a relatively unknown designer can come out with a product just as great. His prices would also be considerably lower. But today in a society where name holds a higher appreciation, the value of some random company’s product will never be fulfilled.