People who know, say you can’t go…to Home Goods again
Growing up, the pinnacle of Black auntiehood (which is gender-neutral and transcends almost all socio-economic levels of Blackness) was the weekly trip to Marshall’s. Whether you were a working class auntie working swing shift in a call center, a stay-at home auntie with a husband with two jobs or the auntie who sits on a board of trustees and just got her doctorate—auntiedom and Marshall’s go together like a fridge full of Trader Joes food and having no ingredients to make dinner.
Box stores like Marshall’s, its’ twin TJ Maxx and Home Goods are a part of the tapestry of my childhood and shopping in them makes me feel nostalgically safe like a warm blanket. Just like me, Home Goods knows who she is and she’s not trying to be anybody else. She’s not trying to be Ralph Lauren (although you may see some RL in there on a good day.) She’s not Tiffany’s. She’s the store you go to when you want to pass some time.
You go into Tiffany’s and you know what you’re going in there for. You’re going in there for Leonardo in that one movie where he was doing that Elon Musk accent with Djimon Hounsou. Where the diamonds are bloody. I think you get it. Tiffany’s. Same thing with Armani. You go to Armani and you say, “I’m an Armani guy. My name is Ray Liotta and I’m playing a gangsta in a movie called Goodfellas.”
Sidebar: Goodfellas is a film I absolutely love because it’s not afraid to lie to you right in the title. I didn’t see not one damn good fella in the entire franchise.
Anywhooo… People shop at Tiffany’s and Armani and countless other stores because of the brand recognition. Home Goods and Marshall’s and TJ Maxx and her cousin Ross aren’t like that. They’re just that girl. You don’t go to Home Goods knowing what you’re gonna get in there. Maybe generally speaking you have an idea. Like maybe you go in and you’re looking for a lamp. So you’ll get a basket and you’re gonna walk around and see if there’s anything in there that you like. And usually you’ll find at least one thing. It won’t necessarily be a name brand. As a matter of fact, the best stuff there probably comes from a brand you’ve never heard of. Hell, the BEST stuff doesn’t even have a brand name on it. It’s just stuff.
You go and maybe you see something you like on the shelf. They’ve got exactly ONE of them (Or seventeen of them. There is no in between. There’s either one. Or seventeen) so you know you better grab it because you’ll never see it again. You buy it and maybe they give you a bag, maybe you carry it out of there under your arm like a football and loosely buckle it into the backseat of your Nissan Rogue like a toddler in the 1970s.
And you bring your new item home with you with a sense of excitement because you know just where to put it in your house. And how you’re gonna style it. And you can’t wait to introduce it to all of your other stuff. Maybe some other stuff you also got from Home Goods. Yeah, you could go to Tiffany’s or Ralph Lauren or Armani but there’s nothing quite like going home to Home Goods again. Finding hidden treasures at these kind of stores is a time-honored tradition where I’m from. One I’m not ashamed to continue. And it’s one I hope doesn’t go away anytime soon.
