I know it's not news, but seriously.

[mrissa]

markgritter and I were at Kohl's buying tights* and a heated mattress pad, and the clerk was friendly and chatty. Conversation turned to Thanksgiving, and she said that she was going to have to be at work at 2:45 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. She has a 1-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a 5-year-old. And it's not that she's leaving them alone at 2 a.m., it's that she'll have to be dealing with the three kids after she's been at work since 2:45 a.m. I know this is nothing new. I know this is not news. But it's crap all the same.

In years past I haven't done Buy Nothing Day for the day after Thanksgiving. I've observed Buy Nothing Stupid Day instead--if you're out of milk and you need milk, for heaven's sake buy more milk, but this is not the same as trampling other people to get to the fad toy of the season--for kids or adults. But the stores that make their employees show up in the middle of the night do so because they think they can get more of our money by treating their employees like crap. And the only thing I have to prove them wrong is to avoid giving them my money.

So in the comments here, please tell me of good businesses you know, either online or in brick-and-mortar form. Whether they're individual craftspeople who are doing an awesome job or larger enterprises who treat their employees decently, I want to know the good and interesting stuff that's out there and not feeding into the "haul people out of their beds at 2 a.m. after a major family holiday to use blenders as loss leaders" paradigm. Etsy stores are fine. Traditional stores are fine, although if they're not in the Minneapolis area and don't have a website, they'll mostly be of use to other people reading the comments instead of me. Just--go for it. Tell me what you know that's good. I don't like the word "pimping" in this context. But y'know. If I did and all.

*Thank you, thank you, Vera Wang, for making tights that acknowledge my existence. I am not unduly tall, nor crazy amounts of thin for my height, so I really should not fall between the cracks for makers of hosiery as often as I do. And then the Vera Wang tights are often awesome in concept and wear like cast iron. Hurrah.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Hon, I have no idea how much you weigh, other than "more than me and less than timprov." So I am going to reproduce the size chart on the back of these tights, in case it's useful to anybody:

Size 1: Height: 4'11"-5'6" Weight: 100-150#
Size 2: Height: 5'3"-6'0" Weight: 120-170#
Size 3: Height: 5'3"-6'0" Weight: 165-200#

I like that their sizes are overlapping rather than having gaps in them, even if they do not extend indefinitely to the largest or smallest of us. I have not tried the Size 2, but I could theoretically wear them as well as the Size 1, since I am in both rather than neither. Neither is the case with all too many hosiery manufacturers. But it would be nice if they made a larger range of sizes, I do agree.

Also, if it looks iffy for someone who is interested and reading this, I'd try one pair and see, because rmnilsson's report below about the capri leggings concerns me. I am terrible at guessing weights but not so terrible at guessing heights, and there is no way in hell that she is over six feet tall; they should fit her just fine. And yet apparently no. (Then again, this is the size range on the tights, not the capri leggings, so I dunno.)