Surreality
The mall is an interesting place to experience the variety of life. So, today I happened to go to the Natick Collection with my friends to do Christmas shopping/browsing.
Now, it being Christmas time, you sort of expect that things will be a little out of the norm. Stores are trying to out pimp each other for your hard earned credit card debt. Santa is hoping parents don’t notice that this year Santa’s deodorant is whiskey as opposed to last year’s vodka. And every third person in the mall has decided it would be a great idea to bring their kids or entire extended family. All of those were present… But there was much much more!
After a bit of wandering with Ty, we made it down to the swanky wing of the mall and the Neiman Marcus store. As we turned to head back, we spotted an American Express Members Lounge which seemed a bit out of place. I thought nothing much of it, but Ty remembered that he had an AmEx card. So it was decided that an investigation was due.
Apparently American Express wants to remind you to live the high life, with the help of a little credit. The lounge offered free coffee and tea drinks, snack, a private bathroom, coat check, internet terminals, and gift wrapping. All of this was complimentary. We were also the only two people who seemed to think the whole thing was a bit strange. This is what happens when you grow up in Colorado.
To a good ole mountain kid like myself the high life is just that, living somewhere high. I lived at about 11,000 feet through high school, I know what thin air feels like. I am slowly getting it into my oxygen deprived head that this other high life includes many extra perks. In other words, we milked that lounge for all it was worth. I’ve also decided I could live a pretty decent life simply hoboing about taking the train from city to city and living on only the good provided at the nearest Card Members Lounge. Especially since you can use the good old internet to mapquest your journey as you go.
But that was only the tip of the “welcome to Oz” experience.
On the first floor there was a prominently displayed Lamborghini. It was not being raffled (ok you can stop laughing about me even stating that), it was an advertisement for a car club. You could purchase timeshares is luxury and exotic cars. The price is not listed anywhere, but to give you a hint, you get a $1,000 gift certificate to the mall for signing up.
After that we became more acutely aware that the stores at that end of the mall were a bit different. Normally you can find a good vairety of shops that sell high-end brands. Not so here! Why go to a reseller when you can go directly to the brand store. Louis Vitton, Gucci, Rockport, and many other were among the brands available to exploit you. But that was significantly more normal and expected. You really have to live in a cave to not be familiar with the fact that the brands do operate their own stores.
What few stores have though, are models. While going by one clothing store we noticed that the window models were living breathing girls and not your friendly fake tits statues. If we had had more time it would have been an enjoyable event to see how long it would take to make them uncomfortable and quite possibly paranoid and needing to hit a security button. After that, the fact that there was a girl doing yoga in another store window didn’t seem that odd.
I suppose this is my official welcome to New England posh shopping.
[...] has a post about our adventure in the Natick Mall last [...]