My First Experience at Last Chance

My co-worker Jen convinced me to go on a little lunch excursion with her on Friday to Nordstrom’s Last Chance Store. For anyone who hasn’t heard of the store, it’s basically a dumping ground for designer shoes, bags, clothes and accessories that either didn’t sell at the regular Nordstrom or Nordstrom Rack, or that have some light (or in some cases, not so light) damage done to them.

The store was massive in size, and had a lot of shoppers for a Friday afternoon. And apparently it can get a tad crazy there when good deals are at stake. Not 2 minutes after walking in the door, Jen and I were browsing purses in a 35% off bin. It was crazy to see $2000 purses “marked down” to $500 in the mix. But as we were browsing, a security guard came up and asked us to stand back 5 feet and stay put while then placed some more purses into the bins. There were maybe another dozen ladies in the area who had to do the same, which I thought was weird. Jen walked around the perimeter as they were adding bags and they literally YELLED at her to back off! The lady who was putting purses in told her if she “tried that again” they would kick her out! Then the security guard (who was really not much bigger than me – I could have taken him :)) gave the word and people were allowed to continue shopping. It was really funny and awkward at the same time – nobody rushed in or started fighting over the new merchandise. I just don’t get it. Obviously they have had issues with fights in the past over a good bag, which is why these crazy regulations are in place. But in all seriousness, I would LOVE to see two upper-middle-class ladies duke it out for a $400 Valentino :)

The shoe selection was huge there, but I was really not very impressed with the deals overall. A lot of the shoes had obviously been worn heavily and then returned (who does that?!), but the prices still ranged from moderate to ridiculous. A lot of our conversations went like this:

Jen: “Ooooh! Those are nice shoes! (Insert brand name I’ve never heard of)!”
Me: “Yeah, but they’re still $100”
Jen: “But they used to be $500!”
Me: “You really can’t use that kind of logic on a girl who shops at Target.”

Don’t get me wrong, I like having nice things. I just don’t want to pay a ton of money for used items just because some famous designer stamped his name on them. I could get 100 PAIRS OF OLD NAVY FLIP FLOPS for that price!!

In the end, I did end up buying a nice pair of Cole Haan’s – patent black with just a slight platform and an open toe. Perfect for summer – and I’ve been looking for a replacement to my Aldo’s for some time now. So I was a happy camper :) Jen was very successful too, and walked away with 2 pairs of shoes and a cute bag. We had a fun time, but I think I can safely say that that will be my first and last trip to that store. For now I’ll stick with my Banana Republic clearance rack and avoiding cat fights!

So Comfy!! With Nike Air Technology - thanks Cole Haan!