No Fun at the Agora

It was a red letter day—Day 357 of a lost year but the first day of the rest of my life. The two-week waiting period following the second vaccine was up. I looked forward to some Covid relief with my first trip to the mall in over a year. 

The Galleria Mall is very much a going concern. It's Houston's shopping hub, the largest such venue in a big parcel of urban sprawl. All the major chains are represented. If they're found elsewhere in the city, the Galleria is still home base and bigger. Tenants range from Forever 21 to Neiman Marcus, so there is something for everyone. Today there was nothing for me.

Mondays are usually quiet shopping days, so what I expected was a humming, if not exactly bustling, mall. I thought I'd see stores stocked with new merchandise. Despite our Arctic Freeze of two weeks ago, it will be 80 on Friday. Usually by this time they are full of Spring-into-Summer apparel. The fashion magazines and catalogues I receive have hinted at lots of ruffles, bright colors, bold prints, and funky tailoring. What I saw at the mall today was social distancing and sweats.

By social distancing I mean among racks. Like restaurant tables, many seem to have been removed to create more space. At first I thought this was to encourage safety between customers. I soon realized there was not enough product to fill them all. And what product was there was...no fun. I have never seen so many iterations of sweat shirts and sweat pants and at the most unexpected of places like Banana Republic. 

Not what I saw today...

Gone was the work wear—the tailored jackets with a bit more style than a blazer, the frothy blouses or crisp shirts to wear under, the sweaters in an artist's palette of colors, the impossibly high heels and craveable ballet slippers, boardroom-ready dresses and garden party frocks, the inevitable leopard something and the 150th version of a trench coat. I wanted to see that stuff in their 2021 iterations. It would be a sure indication that life was returning to normal.

That was only Banana Republic, but lack of fresh and/or stylish stock was everywhere. I soon realized instead of my usual hours' long crawl through the mall, today would be a short visit. It was all too sad.

H & M is one of those hit-and-miss places I try not to miss because sometimes I find a hit, especially when they hold the designer collaborations. I actually had an online purchase to return, a black eyelet tunic that arrived too big. Perhaps a smaller size would work better? Alas, nothing in H & M came near to the sophistication of black eyelet. It was more sweats and $20 jeans and t-shirts. The only dresses were on the sale rack.

I had a return at Zara, too, and THERE WAS NO LINE, a sure indication all was not well. What I did see in one of my favorite stores looked more attractive online than hanging there. 

You know those annoying carts that sell horrid tchotchkes like personalized dog collars or freeze dried ice cream? Many were shuttered or covered with grey plastic shrouds. I never thought I would miss them before today.

Macy's is unavoidable because I always park my car by their door. The quick-bite cafe by the entrance was closed. Instead of grab-and-go snacks the shelves were filled with bottles of Macy's-branded water, free for the taking I presumed. They looked like so many IV bottles. Maybe that's where my head is lately. 

Macy's was also missing the more stylish brands they used to carry like the BCBG shop or the Free People boutique. I never understood why they bothered when BCBG and Free People stores are also in the mall. I guess they figured that out, too. The best part of newly empty Macy's? Absolutely no one in the cosmetics department. I could walk the most direct route from parking garage to mall entrance without once being accosted by a sales associate eager to repair my eyebrows, skin texture, or lip color.

I feel for retail, whose heads must still be spinning from this Year of Our Covid. I understand they don't want to be caught with too much inventory in an uncertain world. I'm definitely adding to the problem. Like many of us I've been doing an awful lot of online shopping this year, of necessity if not always satisfactorily. What I saw in the mall today does not want to make me return anytime soon. 

Plenty of stuff at TJ Maxx...

This determined shopper was not about to be deterred. On my way home I stopped into a TJ Maxx near the mall, also a place I hadn't been since forever. There I found plenty of frippery to plow through, racks stuffed with the usual mostly misses, but the fun is always searching for gold. The Runway area was especially packed, which could only mean hands-wringing at the various corporate offices. I came away with a white silk shirt by the recently shuttered Thomas Pink of London (regularly $325 now $14.99) and a Tory Burch patched fabric tunic that satisfies all my fantasies for a summer that is more magical than the last one.

My grandmother used to bless every new outfit I had as a little girl with "Wear it in the best of health." May that be true for all of you and all your new outfits.