ross dress for less

I went to Ross tonight to grab a couple sundresses for the weekend. And let me tell you, that place is an absolute shit show. Clothes were scattered all over the floor and there wasn't a single shoe remaining on the racks. I even heard a sales person respond when asked where to find an item "You'll have to ask customer service for that...I am NOT customer service." Well thank goodness for that.

Anyways, being there and experiencing the chaos and witnessing the token teenager being arrested outside for shoplifting made me all too nostalgic for my own youth and the reason I had such a fondness for this rat's nest in the first place...

Before entering my freshman year of college I had my first "get to know you call" with my future roommate, who was from Lakeland. She quickly informed me that she worked at "Ross Dress for Less" and had been collecting Rubber Ducky paraphernalia for our bathroom all summer long. Please note the two odd things in that last sentence: 1) She said Ross Dress for Less. The whole brand name. I even think it was in giant blue letters when she said it. 2) Rubber Ducky...WTF? We were going to college. Anyways, I hung up the call and walked out to the living room to tell my Dad what had just happened. He roared with laughter. ROSS DRESS FOR LESS he kept saying. He still says it. I think he was more amused by my bewilderment than he was by her specificity.

She lived up to my every expectation when she moved in months later with multiple tubs of Lipsmacker and a blue camo curtain for her closet. Though we were extremely different and never destined to be life long friends, I look back on those days with such fondness and respect for her strong sense of brand identity. I now feel her pain when people insist that I work for the PGA.