European shopping restraint

Shopping in Europe, at least in Munich, Paris, and London, is an exercise is restraint.  Not restraint on my part, but restraint by the shop. Whether you are shopping for food items, make up, dishes, textiles, or even clothes, the selection is limited. When we walk into a US Target or a grocery store or department store, there are a million and one options in each category.  Need pasta? There are 16 types of the flour and water mashed up combination made by at least four or five brands taking up 10 feet of space times five shelves.  There is A LOT of pasta options. 

Walk into the typical shop in Europe and the entire shop could fit in the cafe area of most Targets. The shop will have pasta, but it is likely to be three types made by two brands, if you are lucky. And there won't be 30 or 40 packages of each type; there may be five or so packages of each type. The result is that you find what you need and use it, rather than hoarding more than you can use in a relatively short time. 

The shop must make decisions about what it's consumers will need and want because space is at premium. After all, in the remaining space the shop must fit the entire grocery store worth of categories.  The small Euroean shop has all the same items the gigantic American store has, just less of every item. 

This phenomena holds true across the board. The only stores I found that resembled an American way of shopping where the large high end department stores like Selfridges in London.  Inside this store, there were lots of options taking up lots of floor space with a lot of area between racks. Most shops were boutique size requiring me to say "excuse me" to the three or four people jammed into the bathroom stall sized space just to get to the next rack. 

In Paris, we arrive just in time for the Soldes! InJanuary the Parisians have their mega sales. From what I could tell this event is on par with the American after thanksgiving mad rush. The sales begin with 50% off and by the time we left 5 days later, the discounts had increased to 70%.  Because I am very frugal (aka cheap), I got pretty excited by this prospect.  However, the starting price of clothing is ridiculous.  Levi jeans were priced in excess of 200€ ($250). I saw a pair of jeans in a very small boutique near the Louvre for 649€! Suddenly, I understood why the Europeans have one of everything and generally in black or brown. 

Paris is the land of black, white, gray, and browns.  Honestly, the Champes Élysées was a sea of people in black. If there was any color, it was a scarf or on rare occasions a sweater or coat. It was easy to stick out like an American with all our colors unless you consciencously  decided to leave your colors behind. London was more eclectic with its color choices-meaning they actually wear colors! 

There are the American shops on the Champes Élysées , including the Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, but my favorite was Sephora.  It was GIGANTIC!  It was beneath our hotel, and was twice as big as any I had seen in the US.  We went inside to fight the crowd, but I will admit I was disappointed because aside from the language being spoken, it was exactly the same.  It seems that Parisans take their beauty very seriously and that the way to go is to make it as American as possible! 

There were some super extravagent shops for cars! 

And of course, I stopped to window shop in Paris:

And in London:

In London I found the most gigantic nespresso store:

However, my big shopping purchase was baby spoons for coffee and hot chocolate and comfort pads for my shoes.  

By necessity Libby purchased (well, I purchased for Libby) a great luggage set which we got at a tremendous deal! And it's a great dance partner-nothing beats suitcase dancing in the hallways of one's hotel.

Shopping is a dance-a dance to find the right item at the right price.  Libby and I danced and danced our way through Paris and London. Life is really a dance too_find the right item at the right cost_for me I found the trip of a lifetime with my only daughter after saving a little bit every day for four years. It costs me a tiny bit each day for the ultimate 12 day item at a value I loved_priceless.