Chai what?
America, land of opportunity and when it comes to shopping it’s the land of choice. On a recent visit to the West Coast I toodled around Lazy Acres, an Organic supermarket, and judging by the prices, is reserved solely for the wealthy residents, the USA may have a reputation for fast food and obesity but if you’ve got the dollars you can eat like Gwyneth Paltrow - Organic, GM free, fat free, skinny, Chai, Macha, you name it it’s there, the choice is endless, all i wanted was a pint of milk and i had to whittle down from soy, almond, oat, raw (yes raw unpasteurised milk and its $20) to get to a basic 2% milk, our equivalent of semi skimmed, oh and its not a pint, everything is supersized i could have done with my own cow to transport the giant carton home.
And the choice doesn’t end at food shops, if you have the money there is an abundance of choice, they have the brands that appear on all of our high streets such as Zara and H&M, plus they have adopted a raft of French brands including Maje, BA&SH and Sandro who have stores in LA, pretty much every Yoga brand you can imagine from Lululemon to Alo and America is bursting at the seams with designer department stores, Nordstroms alone has 350 stores, that before you count in Neiman Marcus, Bergdorfs and Saks and Bloomingdale’s.
But whilst we may not have the raft of stand alone shops in the UK, thanks to the internet there is very little we can’t get our mitts on should we so wish, so none of the big shiny stores held much appeal, what I was interested in was the markets and the vintage stores, I am the same no matter where I travel to, thats where you find the hidden gems.
My stateside thrift shopping wasn’t all plain sailing, much like our charity shops, their thrift stores have their fair share of fast-fashion tatt, only instead of Primark its Forever 21 and the dreaded SHEIN reared its ugly head too, Vintage stores sift and filter out for you, which means less digging and its more convenient but you’ll pay a little more.
Style wise, Los Angeles isn’t a million miles from the UK, gym wear is second skin and the same things are selling for a premium on resale such as Original Levis & Vintage Chanel, its home from home, except for the Beach & Beverly Hills, oh and the 500 types of Milk, but they can keep that right?
