Dear Urban Outfitters: you've lost me as a customer

A few weeks ago, as I tend to do, I shopped at Urban Outfitters. I get almost all my tights there, and have quite a few dresses from them. I also bought a winter hat, and a few other items, and on my way out my bags beeped. They checked them, then let me go. The next day I put on the warm fuzzy dark green dress I'd bought, pulled off the tags, and prepared to wear it...only to find that they'd left the plastic anti-theft device on it.

As tends to happen with me, I had the receipt, and thought I'd put it in my purse, but when I went to return it, I couldn't find it. So I shelved the task of trying to return it for a while, hoping the receipt would show up. It didn't. So yesterday when I was buying a dress to wear to The Cove, because that is how I cope with stage fright, I asked the clerk at that same store, 14th/6th, what to do. She told me to show up and tell the security guard and they'd take care of it.

Today I was near the store on 2nd Avenue and 9th Street, and when I walked in and beeped, they told me I had to go back to the original store, so I did. I explained the issue to the security guard, who got the manager, who told me that unless I have the receipt, they can't take the anti-theft device off. "Okay, I'll keep looking for it...or throw it away," I said, because those are pretty much my only options (note: by "throw it away" I mean add it to the four bags of clothes I sorted today to give to Goodwill).


the dress in question

"Do you think you have it at home?" he asked. But what's the point of asking that? I either do or I lost it, and if I lost it, I'm SOL. I was disappointed that there was no other recourse; I could look up in my bank's records the original date of the transaction. I realize that without tags, I could have stolen the dress, and they have no real way to know, but the fact of the matter is, I didn't, and I've been a frequent customer. In fact, just last night, a girl entering The Cove complimented my tights and I told her where I got them; this happens a lot.

But since this seems to be my year of giving up activities (drinking, dating), I'm adding shopping at Urban Outfitters to my list. I unearthed more than enough clothes today to keep me going for a long while, and I can find other places that have better customer service. And yes, I will be adding a pouch to my purse for receipts and trying to develop a Getting Things Done-type system to purge my receipts. The irony is that I have amassed probably thousands of receipts over the years, and they litter, literally, my apartment and my bags, but I can never find them when I need them. I guess I needed another costly lesson in receipt losing to make it sink in that I need to take better care of my possessions, and the onus is on me to be diligent. Still, I think they could've found a way to handle this better. Maybe I'll find the receipt, but either way, I'll be doing my shopping elsewhere.

My new tights, in my in-progress living room:

Shop Your Closet!I love to shop for clothes (as long as it's not too crowded!) but since I need to save money for bigger and better things, I'm going to have to shop my closet for a while. Which is okay, because I have a lot of clothes I really do love. Above are a few sketches of my favorite outfits.

The left ensemble is an outfit I recently got from Uniqlo and I wore it out for my birthday this year. It was my first time at Uniqlo and I loved it! I got an awesome tribal printed tunic with ruched sides and semi-shiny black leggings with gold zippers at the ankle. I wore beautiful antique gold and black gem earrings by La Vie Parisienne and a chunky emerald green gem and gold chain necklace sold by Guru at the Brooklyn Flea. I used my grey coach wristlet (a gift from my sister-in-law) which is a great bag because it goes with everything I wear, practically. And maybe my favorite part of the whole outfit was my MaryRoks shoes by Jeffrey Campbell in grey suede! Love them!
The center outfit is a lot simpler, but super cute and comfy. The top is a really interesting ruffled bubble tank from Victoria's Secret (on sale, of course) and the bottom is a acid wash grey denim mini from Uniqlo. I love the contrast of the really feminine top with the slightly edgier skirt. The top is great too because it has a built in bra– ladies, you know you love that. I wore this with my Natural Comfort gold platform sandals I got a few years ago, and another great pair of antique gold earrings from La Vie Parisienne.
The right look is an outfit I got from Forever 21 a couple seasons back. I loved the top the minute I saw it because the stripes and colors really reminded me of the beach. I think it also reminds me of one of my mother's tops from when I was a kid. I also love the back because it has a V neck, which shows off the tattoo on my back, and a there's little sliver that shows a peak of the lower back, which is pretty hot. The shorts are standard dark denim bermudas, which are great because they're classic and I'm not really one for short-shorts (on me, anyway!). I usually wear white lattice-work style earrings with this outfit to complete the beachy look.