My cousin, Nona Moore and I would sit in chairs next to each other at my mom's house and look through her stacks of magazines. She was on a lot of mailing lists and there were so many good ones to look at.
Long before they opened a store around here, I was in love with her Coldwater Creek catalog. Everything in it was appealing. This was probably 15 to 20 years ago. The jewelry was nice. The clothes were trendy. They put together outfits with no models so there was no preconceived notion of what it would look like on a skinny person.
I shopped there for years loving the fact that they had size 2 to 20 so if you were overweight you didn't have to go to a different store to buy your clothes. They also had them sized to surprise you and think you were thinner than you were. It had almost a western vibe to it (kind of like Robert Redford's Sundance catalog of today.) They got it right.
I was hooked into signing up for their credit card to get 15% of my first purchase. Then if I used the credit card I would receive $20 coupons in the mail. I got coupons quite often and used it all the time to combine with sales and get great deals on things.
So over the last few years I noticed the clothes quality went down. I also noticed a lot of their things were starting to look frumpy. When a friend of mine on FB told me to steer clear of several stores if I wanted to dress and look younger and she mention CC I was surprised because I had always loved the store. But then I got to thinking and I realized she was right. Lately most of the items were kind of frumpy. Very rarely were they putting things out there that were truly "must haves."
It got to the point where the last couple times I got a coupon for $20 I couldn't find one thing I wanted to buy in the whole catalog. So I ordered a pair of jeans and called it a day.
Then I heard they were filing bankruptcy and closing all the stores. How could a once very cool store make so many bad choices that ended their reign as a top female clothier? Did they change ownership? Did their philosophy of style change? Who was the buyer? Were they purchasing clothes from a cheaper supplier to try to make money?
No matter what store it is. CC or Wellspring. Things change. The landscape of retail is forever changing. It's a competitive market there is NO doubt!! I guess maybe no matter what you do, when it's time, it's time.
We will miss you Coldwater Creek circa 1995!
