Comments on: My one-time experience at the Bloomingdale’s makeup floor

By: zoesays

zoesays — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:42:26 +0000

Have you ever been?? NIGHTMARE.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:06:23 +0000

Haha I am so glad you posted this on your top 12 list because I somehow missed it the first time around! Love it. I actually felt like I was at Bloomingdale´s with you while reading it!

By: CCC

CCC — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:32:54 +0000

I can attest to the awful experience – I was Zoe’s Bloomingdale’s shopping partner.
When Zoe mentioned she wanted to go to Bloomingdale’s my heart raced – not in a good way. I have never been able to go in to the 59th street store without a near anxiety attack. I never stray from the first floor – but is there really a first floor? If you walk in the Lexington Ave. entrance you don’t know whether to go up or down. A split level department store – very poor design. This causes a bottle neck and almost makes me turn around and go right back out the door – but Zoe and I push on. Off to the makeup area on the pseudo first floor. I went to the Laura Mercier counter while Zoe was at Lancôme. My experience wasn’t much better at that counter. I was the only customer with two saleswomen looking bored and of course not acknowledging me. After a few seconds I found what I was looking for, on my own, and had to ask the saleswomen if they in fact worked at the counter. Their response “yes”. My response “great, I’ll take this”. The response in my head was – I could use a little help here. I want to spend some money at your makeup counter bitches. Let’s make this transaction quick and painless so I can get out of here. Oh Gloomies. Always fun shopping with you Zoe!
CCC

By: la zia cara

la zia cara — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:23:37 +0000

What an excellent review! Just think, you would still be wondering about the bloomies experience if I hadn’t been inspired to get you the quintessential Manhattan gift card, which you intelligently used for exactly what I hoped you would, your beloved Lancome. I owe you a buck fifty!! LOVE YOU MORE THAN GREEN EYE MAKEUP!!

By: zoesays

zoesays — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:32:41 +0000

Don’t I have some great family members? I think my mother’s reply really “makes” the post come more alive – and proof that today’s Bloomies sucks.

Zoe Says: favorite line is “They oughta change their name to Gloomies!”

And to my loving aunt: I went ahead and bought a ShamWow the other day. Ha! The trick is to purchase what you want online – then they want you to buy from the phone after that. But there’s always a way! I’ll try to do a post about it after experimenting with it.

By: la2c

la2c — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 05:54:50 +0000

Hey Zoe, You are an awesome writer! I hate even thinking about the cost of things today and the excessive spending here is all over the world on one side of the coin and then nothing on the other side Hopefully we girls are all in the middle….choosing not to spend when they make it so easy………living with what we need and not wanting more. I must admit I do want a ShamWow! Just hate buying off TV. Love you Girl, AA
PS THANK YOU SO MUCH

By: yomama

yomama — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 05:30:48 +0000

All I can add is that the Bloomies of the early 70′s was still a heady experience, with multiple sizes and shapes of brightly colored glossy gift boxes freely doled out at the gift wrap counter -and at holiday times, they were everywhere throughout the store. Half the fun of giving a gift from Bloomies was the box it came in. Big chunky jewelry, the latest polyester palazzos, and platform shoes just shouted Bloomies when you walked down the street; silk Gucci scarves in brilliant florals, fashion socks to tickle your toes, and fake fur collars on London Fogs were so-o-o- fun to wear. And the makeup facials were the essence of seductive: they just sucked the money right out of your wallet. Just hopping off the Lex and swinging through the revolving door into the store revved the shopping cells into gear: it made you feel like you could buy the whole place even if you were only on a grad student budget. Alas, only a few years later, the tides had turned, and the gift boxes were now collectors’items; gone was the largesse of the sales clerk. Now she had to search high and low beneath her counter to find the last remaining flat, prefolded soft-sided unibox, and begging for tissue to go with it was mandatory. The colorful atmosphere of the store seemed to have degenerated into the bleak chaos of Filene’s basement even on a good day. And the Attitude of the sales clerks had grown decidedly more edgy: by the 80′s, clerks were either totally aloof, waiting with glazed-over half-eyes for a customer to beg for assistance, or they were in the aisles and in your face with the latest designer test spray.

I haven’t shopped at Bloomies since the 80′s, but I don’t miss it. I’d rather remember how it was almost 40 years ago. And they oughta change their name to Gloomies.