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It's About Time
Ruth Wong
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Your choice: Quality or quantity?
With the long-awaited opening of Nordstrom in Honolulu, I'm as excited as the next person.
Nordstrom and I go way back -- to my childhood years in Seattle. Back then Nordstrom was solely a shoe store.
I remember going downtown to Nordstrom's with my mother every year for my "back to school" shoes. That was the main new pair of shoes I got each year.
One thing I appreciate about my mother is that although we were rather poor, she was careful to buy quality. Times were lean financially as Japanese Americans were restarting their lives after getting out of the World War II relocation camps.
Today I wonder how she managed to clothe a family of four on such a tight budget, and to make it a priority to buy quality. I guess the answer would lie in:
» Setting priorities. To her, good shoes were important. I think she realized that we have only one pair of feet to last a lifetime. At that time, having new furniture was a lower priority, for our house was furnished in "early Salvation Army." When funds are limited, we have to identify what's more important and focus on that.
» Making conscious choices. No buying of impulse items that add little to life. No buying just because it's so cheap. No buying just to have something new. No frittering away cents and dollars here and there, but saving them for quality purchases.
» Knowing how much, or little, is really needed. As a child, I might have owned only one or two pairs of shoes at a time. And that was enough. I also didn't have that many clothes, but I remember being nicely dressed. My closet wasn't stuffed to capacity. What I had I needed and wore.
We seem to have veered away from that type of thinking.
Today, with the vast selection of goods and prices available, we shop, we see and we buy. Many of us end up with quantity over quality and have so much that it spills out of our closets and drawers.
I, for one, am ready to roll back the clock and go back to a simpler time of having fewer things but things of greater quality.
How about you?
Do you:
» Prioritize your buying and know what's most important to spend your money on now?
» Resist impulse purchases?
» Pass it up if you don't need it, even if it's the world's greatest bargain?
» Know what you really need?
» Know how much or little you need?
» Aim for quality instead of quantity?
» Buy with a purpose?
» Buy less but buy the best that you can afford?
If you answered "yes" to most of the above, you're on your way to choosing quality over quantity and buying selectively and purposefully. Happy shopping!
See you in two weeks!
Ruth Wong owns Organization Plus. Contact her care of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813, call 488-0288 or e-mail
orgplushawaii@hawaiiantel.net.