Joyce, Christine, Nevaeh and Tristen are in town to visit April and I for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Of course, when with April, go shopping, right? Their first day in town, they spent nearly three hours in the Old Navy store in San Francisco. As if that weren’t enough, after we had dinner at the Bay Street Askew Grill, we stopped by the Old Navy there as well. Let’s just say, there was a whole lot of shopping going on.
When April and I were in Los Angeles last month, we stopped by a Banana Republic store in Burbank to do some Christmas shopping. While she perused the women’s section, I stumbled upon an overcoat that I really liked. This might sound like an ordinary occurrence for most people, but for me, it’s a cause for celebration when I find clothes that I like. Getting me to buy new clothes is like pulling teeth. I don’t like shopping for clothes and prefer to wear what I have in my closet until it has completely decayed.
Forgive me, for I am not a fashion guru, but I will do my best to accurately describe the coat. It is a long, heavy coat; almost like a pea coat. Being a Banana Republic item, it is incredibly soft and comfortable. There were two shades: black and a dark charcoal gray. What caught my eye was the cut and the buttons. It didn’t have traditional pea coat buttons. Rather, it had a zipper and a set of buttons to close down a flap that conceals the zipper. The collar and the straight-line front make it look something like the cut of my wedding tuxedo.
I grabbed one off the rack and put it on. It fit magnificently, so I walked over to April to show it to her. Of course, whenever I do something like that, she lights up and gets excited that I might actually make a purchase. I told her I liked it and that I would consider buying it since we receive a generous discount. I took it off and looked at the price tag. It was $225 at full retail. I figured, after the discount and taxes, we could get it out the door for close to $130. I don’t particularly like spending that much money, but in this case, I was willing. However, after walking around a little longer and picking out gifts for other people, I decided that I should concentrate my efforts and my funds on things for other people since it was indeed Christmas time.
After Christmas passed, we stopped by a couple of Banana Republic stores for various reasons and each time, I looked for that same coat. It was nowhere to be found. I figured it was just out of stock in the stores we stopped in because it was a popular item. Disappointed, April told me that the stores may have begun sending that set of clothes to outlets to make room for the next season. I was sad, but not completely broken up about it. I figured, perhaps I’d be able to find it at an outlet one day. When we arrived back in the Bay, whenever we would pass a Banana Republic while out and about, I would take a look to see if the coat was on the racks. Of course, it wasn’t, but I wasn’t holding out hope or anything at this point.
This weekend, while the group was shopping at the Bay Street Gap store, I decided to hop across the road to take a look at the Banana Republic men’s store there. It was 8:50 p.m. and I only had a couple of minutes to do any damage if at all. I walked in and my eyes began to scan a la April. I scanned the racks of coats and outer wear but had no luck. I began to think, it was really just gone. I continued to walk around and look at what else the store had to offer and eventually found myself at the clearance section in the back.
There were two jackets on the end of a lower rack so I reached out to brush my hand against them. One of them was a dark charcoal gray color and felt a lot like the same material the pea coat was made of. I took it off the rack and low and behold, it was there. The coat was there, and it was in my size! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I quickly looked at the tag and the next miracle hit me in the face. It had been marked down to $89. I was almost sure I was going to get it but I had initially wanted to get the black one. After a little thought, I decided that the dark charcoal gray was also pretty cool and besides, I had nothing of that color in my closet. I don’t know if I was paranoid, but I felt like a fellow shopper was eyeing the coat as I was trying it on so I took it off and excitedly made my way to the cashier.
When it was my turn, I put the coat up on the counter and the clerk began to ring it up. Because I was overly excited, I made small talk to share my experience. April always tells me I’m “madalal”, which means verbose or something close in Tagalog. I’m glad I talked a little more than I needed to this time, because it made my purchase that much sweeter.
I showed the clerk my Gap employee discount card and she rang the jacket up on the screen. It read $67. Then all of a sudden, it went down to $62. Apparently, I hadn’t noticed the “Take an extra 30% off clearance items” sign that was above the coat I picked out. On top of that, I received the Gap employee discount for already-marked-down items and it made the before-tax cost of the coat $56. From $225 to $56. That is remarkable.
Of course, I gushed about how happy I was to have found the coat and the clerk mentioned that I was lucky to have found it because it was a very popular piece. I could tell she was happy that I had snagged it at such a great price as well. Then came the kicker. She told me that a seasonal employee at that particular Banana Republic store had put the coat on hold during his tenure there but had never come back to claim it. His hold time had expired and she had just put that very coat back on the rack earlier in the day. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
I had just luckily stumbled upon a coat that I really wanted and I picked it up for an incredible price. The clerk reached for a hanger and was about to put it and the coat into a bag for me to take but I stopped her and said, “Oh. I don’t need a bag. I want to wear the coat out,” to which she volunteered to cut off the tags and extra thread for me. I put my old jacket into the bag and wrapped myself in perhaps one of the top 10 deal purchases in my life and walked out of the store. I made my way across the road once more and surprised April with it on as I walked back into the Gap. Her jaw dropped when she saw it and dropped again when she heard my story about how the coat had returned to the rack and about how I had gotten it for such a great price. I couldn’t be more happy with that purchase. It really was a total steal.