Now, since I've singled out a store I like, I should offer up a store that I dislike. That store is Bed, Bath & Beyond. It's hard for me to explain, but every time I go into a BB&B I feel deflated. This has happened to me in Toronto, and again yesterday in Fredericton. Yesterday I was looking for a household storage item. I tried three of four other stores without any luck. Out of sheer desperation I entered BB&B. I was immediately struck by the smell of the store. It smelled like manufactured plastic, mildly toxic. The shelves were piled to the rafters with merchandise. I'll give them credit for having a well stocked store, but my well felt empty.
BB&B is a successful business. They've been around since 1971 in one form or another. In 2011 they had sales of 9.4 billion from over a thousand retail locations. Their net income that year was almost a billion dollars. Clearly they're appealing to a large audience.
When I look around a BB&B store all I see is mass Chinese manufacturing. I don't see wretched quality, but I don't see great quality either. It feels like a store that caters to instantaneous gratification and/or whims of domestic fashion. Everything feels disposable, whether it is or isn't. I feel like an alien in this store, as though I've entered a cookie cutter world that doesn't smell of cookies. Rather, it smells of spatulas and plastic mixing bowls.
Growing up as a child I used to look at the steel cutlery in our house. I wondered why our knives said 'Sheffield' on them. Now I know why. Sheffield stood for something, and that something was British quality. My folks still have their Sheffield cutlery. In fifty years time, will your BB&B silverware still be feeding your face? I have my doubts.
Anyone else feel this way, or do I stand alone in the Aisle of Wong?
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