Friday, January 2, 2009

Observations from Merrick Park

I had to take the car into the shop for new brakes, rotors, and wipers so I decided to pass the time by walking over to the Merrick Park shops to perdue their wares. For those that don't know, Merrick Park is one of those upscale high-end malls with stores like Gucci, Prada, Burberry, etc. Some interesting observations:

- I should never go to any mall, let alone shops like these when I really dont want to buy stuff. I wasn't here 30 minutes and I already had a new pair of shoes to lug around. This set off a chain reaction where I found myself trying on more shoes and clothes with my classic shopping mentality that spending a shitload of money is a lot easier once you've broken the ice with the first big purchase. Luckily common sense and my superior willpower stepped in before things got out of hand. Like $2300 blazer out of hand.

- One thing you can count on at shops like this is seeing many beautiful women. Sure, there a a good amount who think they are beautiful thanks to many facial beautification procedures, but there still are a lot of naturally beautiful women. Er, at least from the neck up.

- I need to make more money or cut back spending on foolish things in order to really take advantage of a day I shopping here. Because I don't go clothes shopping too often, I usually give myself a budget of $1000 at the most. Here, I need at least $5-7k to get what I want. Maybe someday I'll get to that level of discretionary income. That or maybe one of these hot women with shitload of money want to be a sugar momma? Hey, I may not be rich but I can sure fuck like a jackrabbit.

- Im noticing that hot younger girls that shop with mom or grandma like to do so arm-in-arm. Kinda weird if you ask me. I just don't get this. Maybe the younger one is showing love because the older one is shelling out some serious loot?

- This place is very relaxing. Plenty of fountains and such providing soothing sounds, no huge mall crowds and the noise that comes with them. There are plenty of comfy chairs to plop down in and read or chat and many seem to be doing just that without be hassled to move along.

Merrick Park is one of those areas I hardly go to just because I'm really not a fan of Coral Gables for some reason. I'm going to have to remember how I always enjoy a trip here and try to come back more often.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to work right next to Merrick at Bayview. Sometimes on lunches I would take a nap on the couches on the third floor. Totally relaxing and great. I was so happy when the Borders arrived there after 3 years.

Anyway, your pain of paying reminded me of this NPR story:

DAN ARIELY: When the server drops off the check at the end of a meal, people often scramble to figure out the norms for payment. Do we each pay for what we ordered? Do we split the bill evenly even if John had that extra glass of wine and the creme brulee?

Findings from behavioral economics tell us that one person should pay the entire bill and that the person paying should alternate over time. When we pay any amount of money, we feel some psychological pain. We call this the pain of paying. This is the unpleasantness that is associated with forking over our hard earned cash. But it also turns out that this pain does not increase linearly with the cost of the meal. This means that when we double the payment, the pain doesn't double; it increases just by a bit. In fact, the biggest increase in the pain of paying comes when we switch from paying nothing to paying something. Now, it's easy to see why one person should pay the entire bill. How so? Well, if every person paid their share, they would all experience some pain of paying.

But if only one person paid the entire bill, then the pain of paying for that person will not be that much higher than if he paid just for himself -- let's say by only one and a half times. Meanwhile, everyone else at the table is pain free.

Is this system financially efficient? Probably not, because different meals cost different amounts or the person whose turn it is may be out of town. But even if you end up paying a bit more in the long run for engaging in this practice, you are likely to experience less pain of paying and have more fun dining out with your friends.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/11/ariely_shared_meals/

PS I'm so happy to know that you 'fuck like jackrabbit'. Really, really happy about knowing that.

Anonymous said...

i hate to break it to you but those "hot younger girls" that are arm in arm with their mom are for sure under 15...so stop looking you pedophile!! I know this because
A. I'm a girl and when we are younger than 16 the last thing we want to do is be caught shopping with our moms
B. And if we were caught out with our moms we would walk far enough away so it didnt look like we were walking with our moms

haha but thats funny bud