I just hate how it’s the only retail space left that never bothers to organize things beyond men’s sections, women’s sections, and the dreaded kids’ section. I had to go shopping today to get long sleeve black shirts for my job (long story). All I needed were like 3 larges that were black. That’s it! But it took me well over an hour because of how much of a nightmare it is. I even had to go to another store down the road because the first one I tried was just a maze.

What I can’t get over is how even the consumer big box stores don’t bother to organize shit. You get men’s, women’s, kids’ sections like stated previously and that’s like it? There’s been times where I wanted to grab some jeans but I had to dart around the store because there just wasn’t a centralized jean section. It’s like if I went to a sporting goods store to buy a tennis racket but the tennis rackets were divided into 3 separate corners of the store. Just… why? And the worst part is I have yet to go to a place where the sizes were actually organized beyond thrift stores. Oh you need a large? Be prepared to sift through 10 mediums and 14 smalls before getting there, and sometimes your large might not even be there but you just spent 10 minutes of your life searching. I’m not kidding when I say this, I once went to Value Village which is a big box thrift store and got jeans that fit me in less than 10 minutes because the jean racks were all in one place (!) and organized in ascending order of waist size (!!). But heaven forbid JCPenney or Kohl’s or Target or Old Navy or any of the other stores for “regular people” do this.

I ended up finding the shirts I needed at Old Navy but they weren’t even the type of fabric I wanted. Apparently we’re in the season now where 90% of men’s section tops are heavy jackets or graphic tees. (hate graphic tees btw, just wanted to say that).

And don’t even get me started on jeans. I’m quite a tall fella and so I need to buy jeans from stores’ “Big & Tall” sections (Big & Tall the retail chain doesn’t even exist where I live), but their “Big & Tall” sections only ever have the “big.” I once went to every clothes store in my area that I could think of and none had an “average” waist size pair of black pants that I also needed for my job that were also tall. They just had big waist sizes that were also like 40 inches down.

And then let’s say you finally find the stuff you’re looking for, now you gotta wait in line and when you finally get to the checkout they ask if you want to register for their account… then their credit card… then do you really not want an account… then they ask if you want a coupon… and then you finally get to pay for your stuff. To use the sporting goods analogy again, I don’t remember Dick’s Sporting Goods asking me all that BS just to buy exercise equipment…

The shirt thing has actually gotten to the point where I usually order my shirts from LL Bean online because they don’t shrink much in the wash and they always fit. Only downside is they take like 2 weeks to ship and only come in solid colors, so I had to go in person for shopping because I needed these shirts by tomorrow.

/rant.

Anybody else struggle with this to such a degree? If you know any retail chains in the west coast US that aren’t Value Village and aren’t a total maze to navigate then please drop them down below.

edit: to drive home the first point about organization, if I go to buy a baseball bat then most sports stores will have a Baseball Section but it’s like if those stores had a “Stick and Ball Game section” that also included Cricket bats among the baseball bats.