New York City is a shopper's heaven
New York is a treasure trove of so many things that it is quite difficult to select one thing to mention when talking about this wonderful city. If you are a natural shopper and bargain hunter, you would be remiss not to go to New York with the idea of finding great bargains in mind.
I can't imagine many places in the world that have a myriad of shopping options that are available to New Yorkers on a daily basis. It's hard to imagine people who have never had the thrill of getting that little extra percentage off or finding a perfectly good secondhand piece for less than a quarter of what that item would have cost new. At the same time, there are very few things that you can mentally justify paying full price for.
Perhaps that is why New York represents a shopper's paradise for me. There are so many consignment stores, used clothing stores, vintage clothing stores, and the bargains don't end with clothing. There are consignment furniture, household items, even tools that can be found at bargain prices at highly specialized consignment and thrift stores. You can also find electronics and household appliances in these types of stores. It is truly amazing all the wonderful things that can be found at bargain prices by those who are really willing to search for them.
In addition to the many consignment, thrift, and goodwill stores that you can find in New York City, there are also many outlet stores that offer lower prices for overstock from the past few years or slightly faulty patterns. It's amazing the bargains you can find when these stores have sales. Of course, shopping at your regular malls right after Christmas or a couple of weeks after school has started can also generate very similar values. The real beauty lies in the fact that you can go to these stores while these sales are taking place and have wardrobes for your kids for the next school year (as long as some kind of abnormal growth doesn't happen in the meantime).
If shopping for you is more of a calling than an adventure, then you should have a good time just wandering around the many malls in New York trying to think about the proximity of so many wonderful deals and how everyone in that city doesn't go bankrupt. Nor are you in serious trouble because credit cards are being spent far beyond your limits.
Of course my kryptonite is the shoes. I have a hard time getting past a shoe sale, even when I know the price isn't as good as it could or should be. I love shoes, especially Birkenstock. You simply cannot buy second hand Birkenstock and even the asking prices for these shoes are more than what you would pay for many retail. I once thought they were the ugliest shoes on the planet and while I agree they are not the cutest, arguably the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. If you ever notice a really good sale in shoes and a whirlwind of brunette running, it's probably me singing 'see no evil, speak no evil, do no evil' and trying to convince myself that there really is nothing to see here.
