What was that? I can't hear you!

A few weeks ago Forever 21 opened here in SLO filling the old Gottschalk's building. Two of my friends checked it out and were pretty impressed with the selection and prices so we went to go check it out yesterday. We walked in and it was HUGE! The entire building as well as the old home furnishing section was FILLED with clothes and accessories. It was SO overwhelming.

Once the shock wore off I then wondered why I had an instant headache…oh right!! It was the MUSIC PLAYING AT A LEVEL 11!!!! My god! Do they think young women are deaf? I know this isn’t a new trend…when I walk by Abercrombie I get knocked over by the sound waves and that awful perfume smell. But for some reason I didn’t expect it at this store.

I’ve heard they play the music that loud so that the parents will just hand their kids their credit card and wait outside. I’m sad to say that if I were a parent I would probably do that, but the loud music has never been a concern for me because most of the stores that use that sales tactic are out of my price range. Forever 21 however is a bulls eye for my price range.

I understand if the man behind the curtain wants to give his consumers the feeling of partying while shopping…I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that you have to SCREAM at your shopping companion to communicate. Um…what fun is that? I guess they don’t want you to get advice from each other of which pair of jeans looks best. They just want you to buy them both...am I right?

I am also WELL aware that I am getting older, which is only 10% of the problem. I wouldn’t say this store is 100% a teenybopper store either and they should really think of ALL of the ages of people that shop there. Here is my solution…on certain nights of the week they should turn the volume down a tad. Just a tad! I would be much more willing to spend an extra hour or 2 in there perusing if I wasn’t so irritated by the blaring music. However I hate to admit that even with the music I was able to find quiet a few things to purchase.

Thanks to my Facebook buddies I was told to shop on their website. DUH! Although I was excited to have an actual new store in town vs. shopping online…oh well…I'm supposed to be in on a spending freeze anyway.