Now, I love Modcloth. I do. It's one of my favorite stores. But they sure do get away with some puffed-up prices...
Saw a dress at Forever 21 a couple weeks ago:
Woven Tea Party Dress - Forever 21
The price? $22.80. Not too bad, it's a pretty nice, flouncy cut. If it were in a different color (that pink doesn't work well on me), then I'd definitely be interested. Regardless, it's a memorable enough look that it stuck in my mind... so when I was browsing through Modcloth's dresses this afternoon, and saw this item a few pages in:
Pomegranate Dress - Modcloth
...there was a Moment of Recognition.
Their price? $49.99.
Mmmmmmhm.
It's definitely the same dress; I checked the descriptions on both sites, and they have the same composition (97% cotton, 3% spandex).
Now, like I said, I do actually love Modcloth, so maybe I'd let this slide without saying anything... except that this is actually the THIRD time I've seen this ripoff phenomenon with an identical item between Modcloth.com and a cheaper place's site, like F21 or Wetseal. The first two times were just before I started this blog. (Isn't it nice to share things!)
So what gives, Modcloth? Where do you get off selling F21-grade products at Urban Outfitters prices? And no offense to F21, I shop there a lot -- but anyone who DOES shop there knows that their clothes are not generally well-made, durable, high-quality wares. They're the economical option for decent fashion. Selling the same stuff that you'd find at F21 or Wetseal at double the price is like smuggling a Whopper into a nice sit-down restaurant and selling it as a $15 burger.
Thing is, people will buy that jacked-up, overpriced cheapo burger. Why? Because the nice, sit-down restaurant has Atmosphere, and it's the Atmosphere that's convincing. A customer walks in, checks out the nice look of things, checks out the $7-50 menu range... and thinks, "hey, this is a fairly nice place. Their food must be pretty good!" Likewise, Modcloth can get away with selling cheap clothes at heightened prices because so many people find their site, see the nice layout and the $25-150 dollar price range on the sleekly-photographed apparel, the $40-150 dresses... and go "hey, this is a fairly nice place. Their clothes must be pretty good!"In short, if a product is in a surrounding context of good quality, and is promoted like it's quality, then people will believe it's quality. So they'll pay more for it. Business.
And wouldn't you know, the "Pomegranate Dress" is completely out of stock at Modcloth right now. But if you like it, hey, why not click back over to Forever 21 and buy it for $25 less? They're out of pink too, but they also offer it in orange.
✯ ✯ ✯
This all reminds me of an angry singing Zebra.
The Lion King 2 - Not One of Us
Deception!
Disgrace!...
(Full lyrics)
Fdjfgkhduighfdga;dfsk oh my god this song is HYSTERICAL out of the context of the movie. (Though it made me laugh the one time I watched it during The Lion King 2, as well.)
LET HIM RUN
LET HIM LIVE
BUT DO NOT FORGET
WHAT WE CANNOT FORGIVE!!!
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