A Word to the Wise about Shopping at Forever 21

About 2 months ago I met a friend for dinner at the local mall. While I hate the mall that is closest to my parents, I got a little nostalgic after she left and decided to walk around a bit.

When I was in middle school the Palisades Center opened several miles down Route 59 from the Nanuet Mall. It became known as the New Mall and 10ish years later some people still call it that even though it drove the Old Mall out of business. I remember walking through it when it first opened and most of the store fronts were dark, with only 10 stores lighting the dark building (at least half of those stores aren't even open anymore). I remember being 15 and hanging out with my best friend, Katrina, at the arcade talking to boys, and I remember us being 17 going to the mall just to walk around and talk because neither of us had much money to shop. As much as I hate the mall because it's ugly and there's too many people there, I figured for old times sake, let's take a walk around because for 5 years I'm not going there.

So I rode the escalators, walked on all the floors, and just as I was being pulled into Gilly Hicks by their lovely overpowering signature fragrance that they pump through their vents, I was distracted by something colorful in the Forever 21 window and went there instead. I searched high and low for this mint/teal green dress with patterns on it that made it look like a broken animal print and only managed to find the one that was on the rack in the window. But it was a size large, and I was really disappointed because I am not a size large in any store other than maybe Baby Gap.

Now, I'm a little bit like a man, I hate to ask for directions and ask for help in stores. But this dress was under $20 and I really wanted it, so I went up to the guy who had greeted me when I walked in and asked him if there were anymore in the back. Looking down at the dress he said, "no, Forever 21's generally get about 10-15 of each item and they rarely get more shipments of a lot of things. Everything we have is on the floor, and we don't always get everything that's sold online." He told me with some things, they sell out the day they arrive they are so popular. Jeez, who'd have known? Disappointed, I left. But he taught me a good lesson that day:

-When you look online, chances are it won't be in the store because things sell out super fast
-Things sell out super fast because they get low shipment numbers of items
-Once it sells out, that's it

So if you've ever stalked a Forever 21 waiting for something to go on sale, restock, or even just arrive at the store because you saw it online, buy it when you see it or just get it online. And that being said, you need to spend $70 to get the free shipping. Keep that in mind the next time you want to impulse buy an $18 dress that's too big for you.