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El Mundo
July 13, 2009It is called "El Mundo" and it truly is "The World" to me.
It is a department store chain up here in upper, upper, upper it's way the heck upper West Side of New York, and I use the term "department store" very loosely. It's basically a big huge garage sale full of name-brand goods that are dumped in a barrel.
Ever wonder where shoes and shirts go when they don't sell on the clearance racks at TJ Maxx or Ross or Marshall's? Well, they go to the end of the world -- El Mundo.
The motto at El Mundo is caveat shoptor. There is no air-conditioning. There are no organized racks where all of the jeans are and all of the blue shirts are and all of the dresses are. It's just endless rack upon endless rack of stuff. Wander too far down a "row" and you are literally trapped. It's chaos galore!
No dressing rooms. No mirrors. When you find something you like, you kind of put it on over your existing clothes and, if you're lucky like I was Monday night, you ask the nice lady shopping next to you if you look good in the jacket/shirt you're trying on. (For the record, my nice lady had a great eye. I bought three name-brand jackets for only $14 a piece (regularly a gazillion dollars in the department stores) and they looked fabulous when I tried them on at home in a mirror.)
You have to be careful, though, or the allure of cheap shopping will lead you astray. I almost bought a pair of hot pink 4-inch Jessica Simpson stiletto heels, mainly cuz I was feeling sorry for her Monday because Tone-Tone gave her the boot (or, he called an audible or he fumbled their relationship or he turned over a new girlfriend, etc, etc., whatever football pun you want to insert about her quarterback beau giving her the heave-ho!) BUT, then I realized that I was about to purchase 4-inch hot pink heels.
You have to work up the courage for a little shopping excursion to El Mundo, but trust me, it is well worth the trouble,as long as you can avoid the Jessica Simpson heels.
Posted by Lara Richards at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
