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Shopping mishaps, clothing typesafety, and Thai noodles
Today I spent most of the day over on the East Side. I was meeting up with my friend Brian in the evening, so I went over in the afternoon to avoid traffic and to do some more shopping.
Since the theme for my shopping this trip is "clothes that I can wear if I'm a high school teacher, without spending a ton of money", I first went over to Sears. I'd originally thought I'd try Bellevue Square, but I had this idea that Crossroads might be more productive. I also forgot that Sears was not in Crossroads, but that's beside the point. Sears turned out to be perfect -- not only do they already have tons of reasonably priced clothes, but apparently this week is winter clearance and everything is 40% off.
Now here's the fun part: I tried on some corduroys and really really liked them, and thought they'd look pretty respectable and teacher-like with a nice shirt. Thing is, they were originally priced at $40. They had $19.99 stickered on their tags. I figured at that price I'd buy two of them, but I spent like ten minutes debating over which two -- navy blue, dark grey, or dark brown? I settled on brown and grey, and then happened to go by a price checking scanner, and... and it turns out that the 40% off was actually off the DISCOUNT sticker price! And so they actually cost like $12 each! Well... I ended up getting all three, plus a sweatshirt jacket for $7 to replace the one I sort of destroyed last year. Awesome.
Then I went to Crossroads. Only one slight problem... I forgot where Crossroads actually is; I thought it was on 148th, not 156th. The east side is a really nice grid for the most part, which is fantastic for navigating, unless you forget which coordinates in the grid you're aiming for. Oops.
Crossroads has an Old Navy, which would also usually be good for "nice but casual pants", though not today. However, when I went into the store they gave me a 40% off any item in the store coupon, so I figured maybe I could replace the current pair of jeans I was wearing -- which were from Old Navy. I went over and got a pair that should have been the exact same cut -- same size, classic rise, flare style, etc. Tried it on, and... it didn't fit anything at all like my other pair. As in, it seemed to be a completely different style -- tight in the upper legs, loose waist, etc. Huh. Went back out, tried on another that was bootcut instead of flare, but it wasn't the right one either. Went back out, looked through the jeans, and a store clerk who saw me took pity on me and asked what was wrong.
"I want to get another pair of these jeans," I said, pointing at the ones I was wearing, "But apparently just picking out another pair in the same exact configuration and size is not good enough."
"Yeah, you gotta try them on," she said. "Where were yours made?"
"I have no idea!" I said. I pried out the tag and looked. "Seems it was made in Mexico?"
"Ah, see, that's your problem," she continued. "This pair you tried on, it was made in China."
"Oh, you have got to be KIDDING me."
"No, really. There are different conditions in each factory... different sewing machines... so each pair really is different. How about these dark ones?" She checked. "Made in Cambodia, hmmm."
They literally had me try on 5 pairs of jeans, all with the exact same size and cut, which all fit completely differently. Finally I found one that fit like my pair, kind of. Sigh. At 40% off, though, it wasn't too bad a deal in all honesty. But why the hell wouldn't two pairs of jeans in the same exact cut and size not fit the same way?
Brian called while I was negotiating the jeans situation ("I'm dealing with a clothing typesafety issue!"), and when I finally extricated myself from Old Navy, I called him back and headed over to Microsoft to pick him up. He works in the same building a lot of my friends used to, so I was pretty familiar with how to get there -- but I had forgotten the exact topology of Redmond and so somehow the idea that the 156th Crossroads is on and the 156th Microsoft is on are actually the same road didn't connect in my brain. But it worked out okay.
We went to a Thai place near there that I already forgot the name of but it started with a Z, and we ate Thai noodles, and they were great! And we talked for almost four hours, seriously, and it's silly how I wrote so much in this post about how stupid shopping was today, when the real highlight of the day was hanging out with someone else who actually speaks at the same baud rate I do, and also likes telling unconnected silly anecdotes about random things, and being all totally psyched up about this weekend (or as he put it, "I've been counting down the days to Puzzle Hunt since they announced the date!"), and doesn't mind me when I digress into total geekspeak. Seriously. Most people want to punch me after like five minutes and Brian (who has a PhD in CS and was telling me stories about ICFP, after all) put up with it for several hours.
So, we tried to go to Borders after that in order to find a Games Magazine and do some pre-Puzzlehunt puzzling (we're on different teams as usual, but figured it'd be fun anyway), except the Borders in RTC was already closed at 9:30pm. Alas. With no real feasible backup plan, I just gave Brian a ride home and came back to this side of the lake. Oh well. If nothing else I'll see him again at PH, but it was weird, I feel like we still left about twenty conversations unfinished within all of the tangents. Also, we need to play Ricochet Robot.
Still, good day for me! New clothes and old friends make Deanna something something.
Since the theme for my shopping this trip is "clothes that I can wear if I'm a high school teacher, without spending a ton of money", I first went over to Sears. I'd originally thought I'd try Bellevue Square, but I had this idea that Crossroads might be more productive. I also forgot that Sears was not in Crossroads, but that's beside the point. Sears turned out to be perfect -- not only do they already have tons of reasonably priced clothes, but apparently this week is winter clearance and everything is 40% off.
Now here's the fun part: I tried on some corduroys and really really liked them, and thought they'd look pretty respectable and teacher-like with a nice shirt. Thing is, they were originally priced at $40. They had $19.99 stickered on their tags. I figured at that price I'd buy two of them, but I spent like ten minutes debating over which two -- navy blue, dark grey, or dark brown? I settled on brown and grey, and then happened to go by a price checking scanner, and... and it turns out that the 40% off was actually off the DISCOUNT sticker price! And so they actually cost like $12 each! Well... I ended up getting all three, plus a sweatshirt jacket for $7 to replace the one I sort of destroyed last year. Awesome.
Then I went to Crossroads. Only one slight problem... I forgot where Crossroads actually is; I thought it was on 148th, not 156th. The east side is a really nice grid for the most part, which is fantastic for navigating, unless you forget which coordinates in the grid you're aiming for. Oops.
Crossroads has an Old Navy, which would also usually be good for "nice but casual pants", though not today. However, when I went into the store they gave me a 40% off any item in the store coupon, so I figured maybe I could replace the current pair of jeans I was wearing -- which were from Old Navy. I went over and got a pair that should have been the exact same cut -- same size, classic rise, flare style, etc. Tried it on, and... it didn't fit anything at all like my other pair. As in, it seemed to be a completely different style -- tight in the upper legs, loose waist, etc. Huh. Went back out, tried on another that was bootcut instead of flare, but it wasn't the right one either. Went back out, looked through the jeans, and a store clerk who saw me took pity on me and asked what was wrong.
"I want to get another pair of these jeans," I said, pointing at the ones I was wearing, "But apparently just picking out another pair in the same exact configuration and size is not good enough."
"Yeah, you gotta try them on," she said. "Where were yours made?"
"I have no idea!" I said. I pried out the tag and looked. "Seems it was made in Mexico?"
"Ah, see, that's your problem," she continued. "This pair you tried on, it was made in China."
"Oh, you have got to be KIDDING me."
"No, really. There are different conditions in each factory... different sewing machines... so each pair really is different. How about these dark ones?" She checked. "Made in Cambodia, hmmm."
They literally had me try on 5 pairs of jeans, all with the exact same size and cut, which all fit completely differently. Finally I found one that fit like my pair, kind of. Sigh. At 40% off, though, it wasn't too bad a deal in all honesty. But why the hell wouldn't two pairs of jeans in the same exact cut and size not fit the same way?
Brian called while I was negotiating the jeans situation ("I'm dealing with a clothing typesafety issue!"), and when I finally extricated myself from Old Navy, I called him back and headed over to Microsoft to pick him up. He works in the same building a lot of my friends used to, so I was pretty familiar with how to get there -- but I had forgotten the exact topology of Redmond and so somehow the idea that the 156th Crossroads is on and the 156th Microsoft is on are actually the same road didn't connect in my brain. But it worked out okay.
We went to a Thai place near there that I already forgot the name of but it started with a Z, and we ate Thai noodles, and they were great! And we talked for almost four hours, seriously, and it's silly how I wrote so much in this post about how stupid shopping was today, when the real highlight of the day was hanging out with someone else who actually speaks at the same baud rate I do, and also likes telling unconnected silly anecdotes about random things, and being all totally psyched up about this weekend (or as he put it, "I've been counting down the days to Puzzle Hunt since they announced the date!"), and doesn't mind me when I digress into total geekspeak. Seriously. Most people want to punch me after like five minutes and Brian (who has a PhD in CS and was telling me stories about ICFP, after all) put up with it for several hours.
So, we tried to go to Borders after that in order to find a Games Magazine and do some pre-Puzzlehunt puzzling (we're on different teams as usual, but figured it'd be fun anyway), except the Borders in RTC was already closed at 9:30pm. Alas. With no real feasible backup plan, I just gave Brian a ride home and came back to this side of the lake. Oh well. If nothing else I'll see him again at PH, but it was weird, I feel like we still left about twenty conversations unfinished within all of the tangents. Also, we need to play Ricochet Robot.
Still, good day for me! New clothes and old friends make Deanna something something.
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They had a post a while ago about why you get this kind of variance, and it's because your overall manufacturer -- Old Navy, in this case -- does not provide the factories with a pattern. No, really! They provide the factories with overall garment measurements and tolerances, and the individual factories do their own patterning. The different sewing machines aren't the big issue at all.
So some factory might decide to cut the jeans they are making with more room in the seat and less in the front (which means they will likely fit the non-pregnant version of me), while another cuts them with a flatter seat (which means they will not fit me at all, and ride down my ass, and sag in front, and the waist will gape if I pull them up to my waist). As long as they're within the tolerances, it's OK.
Higher-end manufacturers provide their factories with a pattern and have lower tolerances, and then it does not matter if Pair of Jeans 1 and Pair of Jeans 2 were made in the same country.
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By the by, I *think* Lands End does their own patterning. Their clothes fit very consistently -- they don't fit *me*, but the *way* they don't fit is consistent. I would be surprised if Ann Taylor and Talbot's don't do their own patterning, as well; their stuff fits me with enough consistency that I can order it blind and expect it to fit perfectly or with that-same-alteration-I-always-get.
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