The Non-Consumer Advocate

The following is a reprint of a previously published post. Enjoy!

Yesterday’s Non-Consumer Mish-Mash column received a thought provoking reply to my mention that the 50¢ tank top I picked up at a garage sale was Old Navy brand.

“Why can’t it just be a great black tank top? Why does it have to be Old Navy?”

The reader went to on to write that:

“Because it sounds like we are buying these by BRAND and not because we like them. How does OLD NAVY black tank top describe a tank top any better? How does describing coffee mugs or underwear change how it looks by mentioning the brand name?”

This comment did not surprise me because the same commenter had earlier questioned why the brand of my garbage picked Crate and Barrel Christmas mugs mattered? I had not addressed the question at the time, (lord knows what what going on in my day when I published that piece) but the question had certainly been ruminating with me.

Does brand matter, or is it a completely irrelevant detail?

I think the answer is both yes and no. Brand is not important in terms of status. But some brands are better made than others, and certain brands are more cleverly designed. In the best case scenario, these two occurrences collide.

Take for example Garnet Hill, which one of my favorite brands. Garnet Hill is a mostly catalog based business that sells expensive clothing, housewares and kid stuff; but their star products is their bedding. Oh my God, the bedding! It’s extremely high quality and the graphics are fantastic. When I garbage picked a flannel duvet cover in their classic clouds pattern I was over the moon. Had that same duvet cover been a Target brand, I would have been less likely to bring it home and put the work into mending all the tears.

So yes, brand mattered in this case.

When I picked up the 50¢ Old Navy tank top at a garage sale, my thinking was not along the lines of “Wowie-zowie, it’s Old Navy!” but more along the lines of “This tank top looks functional. I already have a blue one that I also bought for 50¢ at a garage sale last summer, so I know it’ll work for me.”

And no, brand did not matter in this case.

In an ideal world, all consumer goods would be high quality and equally worthy, but such is not the case. Some brands are simply better than others, while stores like Target run the gamut from poor to fantastic quality. (My mother swears by their towels for her rental cottages.)

I describe myself as a “Non-Consumer” but that doesn’t mean that I am immune to brand awareness. It is simply more satisfying to score a $2 pair of Goodwill Levi’s instead of Wal Mart brand. I am not looking to fill my home with designer goods, instead I look for high quality goods that will not fall apart before they should. And if I can get three of four seasons out of that tank top, then I’ll feel pretty good.

How do you weigh in on this issue? Is favoring some brands more than others bowing down to Madison Avenue? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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I wrote the other day that:

“I’ve had more spare time on my hands than usual lately, and I seem to be squandering it. I should be working on household projects, writing, fostering friendships and other worthwhile endeavors. Instead I’m goofing around on the internet, puttering around the house and somehow wasting what should be a great opportunity. I  know it’s because my focus is all over the place lately, but I should still be able to accomplish something with all the time I’ve been given.”

So when I found a moment without distraction yesterday, I took out a receipt and lowly pen and scrawled a to-do list for the day. Not an ambitious list, but a realistic list that includes a few things I’d been meaning to do, yet kept putting off. A list that included:

• Maintenance tasks like putting laundry away and planning and making a dinner.
• Daily tasks like writing a blog post.
• Avoided tasks such as clearing the piano bench and dining room desk.
• Tasks that only have to be done occasionally, but I’d somehow not been doing like sweeping the basement stairs.
• Random things I’d been meaning to do like putting a garbage bag in the car.
• Enjoyable tasks like calling my best friend Jennifer who lives on the East coast. (I always think to call her when it’s too late for her time zone.)
• Bigger tasks like going through a pile of paperwork to sort and shred. (Our shredder had stopped working and magically started working again, so there was a big backlog of papers to go through!)

Did I do everything on my list? Nope. I neither cleared the crap off the piano bench nor did I clear the small desk in the dining room. (We have a bad habit of clearing the dining room table for dinner by stacking stuff on these temptingly horizontal surfaces.)

But having a set to-do list did make me more efficient throughout the day. Accountability. In our app-happy internet age, people think that deliberate efficiency needs to be guided and organized electronically, but I find taking pen to paper is the most immediate and productive method for me. I doesn’t require turning on a device to check on my progress and I love physically ticking off my little boxes. I did sweep the basement steps after dinner last night which I am 100% certain I wouldn’t have done if it hadn’t been included it on my list.

I don’t write out a daily to-do list, as I feel that every moment of my day doesn’t need to be accounted for and justified. I’ve made deliberate decisions in my life to not be a busy, busy, busy person and it’s a slippery slope to let the management of a household eat up my every waking moment.

Are you a pen-to-paper list writer or do you take advantage of all the electronic age has to offer? Please share your methods and thoughts in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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