Discount Clothing

I hate going to discount stores like Ross and TJ Max.
Let me make myself clear - I don't mind finding a deal every now and then - and I hate spending a lot of money on clothing. Sometimes I fear that I will grow old and stale and miserly and will keep wearing the same black tee shirts that I am wearing now. So when I go into one of those stores and find good jeans or a nice shirt for a few bucks I feel like I beat the system. But that is why I hate them. As soon as I look down at the rack of strange mega-baggy pants, with labels I recognize and many I don't, or at shirts that are just a few years behind the curve, I always feel a wave of disgust come over me. It is, at times, appalling to look at the wealth of our society. Not just that we have much more than we need but that – in the end – none of it is really valuable. It's all trifle. We are told what styles of clothing to purchase and we pay dearly for that style. In just a few short years – what we once valued so highly – is relegated to the discount store to remind us that we pay too much and value too highly things that have little intrinsic value and little inherent value. I always question my self and my life work in such situations. Am I producing anything of real value?

In the end though, I am never interested in trudging through the philosophical underpinnings of the conceptual nature of value. Or the debatable importance art plays in society. So I just dig through the trash and find something I think I could tolerate wearing and leave.