Who doesn’t love Amazon?  I often feel guilty when purchasing from this jugger knot of a corporation because I worry that it is putting the smaller mom & pop boutiques out of business.  I watched Sleepless in Seattle and cheered for Meg Ryan’s children’s bookstore to survive the evil onslaught of the corporate giant.  But even Meg, in the end, had to give up and give in to the changing times.

I’ve never really enjoyed shopping as an activity.  I remember being in High School and girlfriends clamoring for mom’s to drop us off for a Saturday at the mall.  Somehow I could never relate to their shopping bliss.  While I would watch girlfriends spend what felt like DAYS digging through every rack and trying on endless outfits, twittering about what looked best, I was bored out of my skull.  My idea of shopping is to walk through a store in a single pass & if something pops out like a fabric, pattern, color, etc., I might stop and peak but otherwise, I could be in and out within the time span of about 5 minutes and ready to go grab a lemonade & hotdog on a stick.

Even today, when my fiance’ needs a new pair of pants or a shirt, he clamors to spend a day walking and shopping, trying on outfits, modeling them for me, and asking if his ass looks good in whatever pants he is trying on.  I’m a little more okay with this nowadays because a lot of the men’s stores have comfy chairs and serve cocktails.  Fine, I’ll shop with you if I can sit and have someone bring me free whiskey neat, please.

So with the show taping around the corner, I realized my wardrobe was sadly lacking.  I really needed to pick up a few jewel-colored blouses (the colors work well on camera) but was really unsure where I was going to even find the time to look.  My closet has become increasingly full of white t-shirts, jeans, sneakers and some simple black wardrobe pieces that allow me to travel with only one to two pairs of shoes.  Checking a bag costs money these days and I avoid it as much as possible.

We have a few boutiques right by our local grocery store so I popped in to see what I could find.  Everything seemed overpriced and trying clothes on meant breaking a sweat & walking out with my hair looking like I had just participated in a salacious role in the sack in the back room.  No such luck actually.  Sex in a dressing room is still on the bucket list though.

Frustrated I decided to see if I could just pick up something online.  I typed in jewel-colored women’s blouse and scrolled through pictures of tops that either was a fit for my niece or a grandmother but nothing that really appealed to a woman in between (unless I  wanted to spend a pretty penny on a high-end luxury item).  Not in the budget.

I ran across a few sites that were filled with amazing pictures of fashionable pieces being worn by 6′ tall gorgeous models.  I actually put a few in the cart and almost checked out before I stopped to do a quick consumer review check on the sites.  It was quickly apparent that what was being showcased and what I was going to receive was vastly different.  Most of the reviews were 1 star out of 5 and the only reason for the one-star was because zero wasn’t an option.  While I love a good joke, I don’t have time to order stuff that is going to show up with one sleeve longer than another, armholes that cut off your circulation, or fabrics that scratch at your skin or are completely see-through.

So my next step was to Google best online clothing shops for women on a budget.  Again, it would seem that most of the budget-friendly options were targeted to younger women that were looking to buy the latest trendy fashions.  Just not my demographic any longer.

Then I came across a blog that rated Amazon in the top 10 best places to shop for women’s fashion clothing.  Amazon?  Really?

Here is what I loved about the Amazon shop experience:

1. Tons of options
2. Amazon makes it incredibly easy to keyword search for exactly what you are looking for saving lots of time
3. They let you filter out advertisers who have low consumer star rating reviews
4. Cheap, cheap, cheap.  Who doesn’t love a bargain?
5. Quick delivery on most items.
6. Easy returns

Best of all?  Real women’s review & pictures!  While a top might have looked stunning in the ad photos the fact that you can click on the items reviews and see what was actually delivered, tried on by an average woman who maybe isn’t model tall & thin, see it in real light (not the fancy stuff they use to shoot those ads) was everything!  Plus, those size charts don’t work half the time.  I dumped things from the cart easily after looking at consumer pictures or ordered a completely different size than I normally would based on the pics and reviews women were posting.

This is my kind of shopping!  Easy.

All in all, I purchased three tops for a total spend of $66.97.  In my book that equates to buy 1 and get 2 free!

In the meantime what do you think?  Will this new shop venture be a big win or am I about to get a box of cheaply made goods out of China that won’t be anywhere close to show worthy for next week?

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