My Imaginary Stimulus Plan - the Micro Version

If I could help out the economy a little bit right now (in addition to the new fridge), this is how I would like to do it: by buying this delicious piece of chairness from Thomas Moser. I had been totally in love with the Corbusier chaise longue - I wanted it in pony, but the hide freaks out my spouse, so I don't know that we're ever going to see eye to eye on this chair.  However, the Moser version takes the lines of the Corbusier and transforms it with the warmth of wood. It's artisan-crafted right here in the good-old-USA by some Maineiacs dedicated to the ideal of furniture built to last several generations. Ahh, the good old days...when our society valued quality over price. Of course, at $3500, I can only admire its quality right now. But I can start saving to buy it...perhaps as a celebratory present when the addition is finally complete.

Which reminds me of a story from my parents' days of retail store ownership. They owned a contemporary furniture store on Brady Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1970s called The Age of Man. There are still some rockin' orange and purple notepads (the store's sign colors) floating around. Anyway, my parents believed in quality over cheapness and this seemed to play itself out over and over with the director's chair they stocked. If you are in your 30s, like I am, your parents probably had one of these since they were all the rage back then, and you probably tangled yourself up in it and tipped backwards in it like I did. Anyway, Pier One was just coming into being around the same time and apparently people would come into my parents' store and see their director's chair, look at the tag, and exclaim to my father how they could buy it for $10 less at Pier One, to which he would say something like, "Go right ahead, theirs is a cheap piece of shit." And the story goes that he had more than one customer who would be appalled at his unwillingness to match the price (and probably his attitude) and storm out, only to skulk in a couple of months later to purchase the higher quality chair from my parents after the one they had bought from Pier One broke. I was bouncing around in my Johnny Jump Up at the time, so I cannot personally attest to the truth of this story, but I believe it and have learned my own lessons that buying cheap, poorly made furniture is wasteful. It's designed to break - it's designed to make you consume more - and thus it is no deal, either for you or for the environment. It is always much, much wiser to save your pennies like your grandparents did (and the French still do), and get the good stuff. Better to own one Thomas Moser Chair your whole life than to buy 3 cheap knock offs that break and get tossed into the landfill.

Ah, heck, let's get one for my husband, too. I'm feeling generous with my imaginary spending - and with two only children, it's best to avoid having to share.