www.breabox.com

michelleby·Jul 20, 2021

Posted in:Lifestyle

I'm conducting research on how people are currently shopping.

1. What are you shopping for right now? (Are you over sweats and shopping for vacation? Replenishing basics?)

2. How do you prefer to shop (Online, in store, subscription box?)

3. Do you love or hate shopping?

4. Have you tried subscription boxes? If so what did you love/hate about them?

5. Do you try to shop for sustainable fashion? What makes this hard or easy?

RebeccaStevenson·Jul 20, 2021

I assume you mean shopping for clothes? 1. Nothing. 2. Online. 3. It's a chore. 4. Yes. I liked not having to go anywhere, being able to try things on at home, and having something fun to open up with surprises in it. (I still get several non-clothing boxes these days.) I was annoyed by their persistent failure to follow the directions I gave them as far as what kind of thing I was looking for. Mailing stuff back and forth all the time started to feel a little ridiculous, too, given how seldom I kept the entire box. 5. I don't do "fashion," and I try not to shop at all unless I actually need something. There's way more to sustainability than "we use organic fabric," but that seems to be where most companies feel like they've done all the work they need to.

michelleby·Aug 13, 2021

Thanks for your reply Rebecca! Your top 3 answers are consistent with what I've seen for most people. A lot of people do enjoy "fashion" (and almost all of us wear clothes) but most of us don't like shopping. #5 is incredibly sustainable of you! This is hard for those of us in the former category to resist, but truly buying as infrequently as possible and buying quality is the gentlest on the planet. I also hate when big box brands that use exploitative labor do the bare minimum by switching to organic cotton while not addressing things like labor, carbon emissions or other toxic practices.

ChristineP·Jul 20, 2021

I'm assuming you mean clothes also!1. What are you shopping for right now? (Are you over sweats and shopping for vacation? Replenishing basics?) Replenishing clothes that I've had for years, and clothes that I sold or donated when I moved countries. Replacing things that don't fit anymore. Also, I can finally afford to shop for styles I like now. 2. How do you prefer to shop (Online, in store, subscription box?) Online3. Do you love or hate shopping? TLDR: I hate shopping. I keep things as long as possible, and still wear a lot of hand me downs. Clothes is also expensive, and fashion is not a necessity. When shopping in person, if I leave empty-handed which is usually the case, I feel like I wasted a lot of time, energy, and gas to go somewhere. Though I like being able to try things on.When shopping online, I love the ability to find more things, find discounts, and you just have more options without going anywhere. I hate how stores don't use real people to model their clothes, I think using only models is outdated and it's hard to tell when something doesn't fit you. Returns could also be a big hassle. What I hate in general for shopping is that it's hard for me to fit into things because I'm quite petite. Shopping for clothes is not something I enjoy and I think it's a waste of time. I haven't really cared about style though I'm trying to change this a little. On that note, clothes everywhere tend to look the same.4. Have you tried subscription boxes? If so what did you love/hate about them?No I haven't. There's just too many subscriptions these days, it's easy to unknowingly spend too much having a lot of subscriptions. I checked our your Brea Box service, and some things that would prevent me from trying is uncertainty. What brands does Brea Box source from? What are the style categories? Are there example boxes that you can show on the website?5. Do you try to shop for sustainable fashion? What makes this hard or easy?I'm not sure how sustainable fashion is defined here. If it's defined as using sustainable material, then not really. I think sustainable fashion is a good tiny step forward, though I think true sustainability means keeping clothes as long as possible, donating and buying used clothes, and not promoting consumerism to reduce waste (though maybe this conflicts with prices and labor conditions?). But in the real world, we will all continue to shop so sustainable fashion is a good thing. I try to be wary of companies doing things like planting a tree for every product you buy because not all tree planting is equal: https://www.wordforest.org/2020/09/04/not-all-tree-planting-is-equal/

michelleby·Aug 13, 2021

So many people hate shopping! And I get why. All of the things you mentioned are super true. It's a hassle and so many brands look the same. Also, fit like you said is a big challenge-- especially online. That's good feedback on wanting more transparency on types of pieces and brands. We are working on making the clothes shoppable on our website. I really like your definition of sustainability and I agree. Buying as little as possible and when you do buy new-- buying sustainable. I also agree that ideally we would buy nothing or very little but out of a sense of pleasure or consumerism or need we are compelled to buy new! So I do believe reducing is key but so is reforming the industry. Thanks for your thoughts!

melaniecrissey·Jul 21, 2021

1. Nothing this month! My closet is stocked for the season, and I'm doing a "no shop July" to save money in my budget.2. Prefer to shop online. Most of my purchases are from Nordstrom or Poshmark. If I shop in-store, it's usually a small consignment store in town. LOATHE the mall(s) and will avoid at all costs. 3. I love shopping and I am pretty methodical about managing my wardrobe. For example, I have a Pinterest board with pictures of EVERY item from my closet. I keep track of what needs to get tailored, repaired, cleaned, replaced, sold, or donated. The biggest thing I hate is that you can't tell quality of fabric or tailoring online. For example, J.Crew changed the cotton-blend on their Jackie shells sleeveless sweaters and now they feel like plastic. I always try to read the fine print and look for hints that the fabric will be high quality, but it's hard to learn and requires attention to detail! 4. Tried Stitch Fix back in 2014. The quality was pretty poor, so I ended up sending things back. Tried Trunk Club back in 2018. Loved how easy the box was to return! Trunk Club was more successful for me. I splurged on some nicer business attire I wouldn't have tried on my own. Once I figured out the brands I liked from Trunk Club, I defaulted back to shopping at Nordstrom online and ditched the subscription service. 5. I would love to shop for more sustainable fashion, but I'm not even sure where to start! I have some items from brands I associate with sustainability (Patagonia, Eileen Fisher, Cuyana) but I'm honestly not sure *how* sustainable these products are. I need more education on the topic. Beyond buying sustainably, I'm trying to come up with a way to track cost per wear for my wardrobe items. So far, the apps I've tried have not been great. I'm so glad you posted this survey here. Will definitely check out Brea Box.

michelleby·Aug 13, 2021

Hey Melanie! 1. I just saw you replied here! It was so fun styling your box! :-)2. I also LOATHE the mall! It feels like such a depressing place with endless options that you don't really like. Ugh!3. This is one of my pet peeves too about quality not being clear in eCommerce. In fact, that ambiguity has allowed many mid range brands to downgrade their quality to compete with fast fashion. I've been disappointed many times when I received something in the mail. And it's true that it feels sneaky and unfair that you have to be a detective to determine if something will be good quality. 3a. UMM I LOVE hearing about your super meticulous system of keeping track of your clothes and their repairs. That's amazing. I had one other customer who had a similar system on Pinterest. It was really cool to style her box knowing what she already had in her closet. Is this super tedious to maintain or is there a way to make it easy for yourself? (any apps or hacks that worked or didn't work?)4. Checks out with what I've heard! 5. This is a big one! There is definitely a lot of education to be done and it is very unclear and confusing to most people! This also feels sneaky and unfair to customers, that to feel that you're not contributing to bad practices that you have to be an expert. Part of my mission with Brea Box is to help educate and make this more accessible! I'm curious what type of education could help. Short quick takes or longer form? Maybe both! Thanks for your feedback!