The Budget Babe | Affordable Fashion & Style Blog

10 Reasons To Shop Here, Not There

Before you turn green with envy because your fashion-intern friend is working in Paris, your art-school friend is studying in Milan and your filmmaker-friend is summering in Spain, consider the following: According to Fifi LaMode, The Budget Babe's International Shopping Advisor, shopping is just plain better in the good ol' U.S.A. Read on to find out why... —TBB


by Fifi LaMode
Fifi LaMode's 10 Reasons we prefer shopping in the US to EUROPE:

1. Exchange rate: EU 1 = $1.40. Stinky any way you look at it.

2. Their idea of a sale is 10% off. Smart Americans don't even consider a sale unless it's 50% off.

3. Their clothes are made in the same factories in China as ours are. For example, prices at H&M are the same here (in the case of Denmark, they're around 40% cheaper here!) even though it's a Scandinavian company.

4. VAT - People who complain about local sales taxes hear should bear in mind that in Europe there's an average of 17% Value Added Tax added on to the price of clothing (with the exception of kids' clothes which are considered a necessity whereas women's and men's clothes are a luxury! ...ok). You can claim part of it back at the airport but usually you have to spend over a certain amount (usually around $200) to get back around 9%—there's a whole industry in "processing" VAT claims and everybody gets a cut.

5. If it's no good, you can't return it! That impulse to get the Armani jacket that's just a tad too tight but looks great when you hold your breath will cost plenty when you see it in the cold light of your mirror back home and realize you paid a lot of money for something you're not going to wear.