Retail Subscription Services…Good or Evil?

To Subscribe or Not to Subscribe: That Is the Question

Meredith and her latest Snack Crate subscription box.

Retail subscription services seem to be the hot new way for retailers to get us buying and coming back for more. I have resisted this new trend because being an Organic Pixie with a non-detail oriented personality type like mine, recurring charges on my credit card is a surefire way for me to throw money down the drain, and quickly.

But then there’s my kids.

They’re a generation of persuasive and expert negotiators. Or they’ve just been born to the pushover generation. Okay fine, we’re just really bad at saying no. Regardless, my 12 year old was the first to talk us into a subscription service called the Pushkin quarterly surprise box. Don’t know what a Pushkin is? Well that’s because they’re actually called Pusheen. I just pulled a “mom” by getting it wrong. (Our family’s favorite “momism” is when the Queen Fairy actually referred to the movie “Dances Without Wolves” as “Dances WITH Wolves”) But hey now I know all about Alexander Pushkin, a famous Russian writer. Right, so a Pusheen is a Facebook emoji that someone has smartly marketed into a subscription service. She’s gotten four quarterly boxes of Pusheen figurines, mittens, sweatshirt, a thermos, earbuds, speaker, post its, etc… 

Next she talked us into getting a monthly snack box called Snack Crate with junk food from around the world.  It’s educational right? She’s also is a picky eater, so shares a lot of her loot with her 5 year old sister and me. We were a little non-plussed by the box from Canada, but Poland was pretty darn cool with among other things, icing covered ginger snacks. I’m still waiting on some Jammie Dodgers from England, but we’ll see.

In self-defense I took the plunge and tried out one of the many clothing stylist subscription services I’ve seen advertised on Facebook. Classic Pixie Kelly has already tried these out with some success and I was intrigued. I decided to try Stitch Fix. It was very easy to pick out the styles I liked, didn’t like, and put in special requests, all at a price point I could afford. And I totally forgot that I had a package coming this fall so it was a fun surprise to receive a box full of carefully cultivated outfits right before the weather changed. It’s been a long time since mama got new clothes, with all our money going to international snacks and emoji figurines. This is my second box so far and while not everything has fit perfectly, they have my style down and have helped inspire me to add some new spark to my wardrobe.

So yeah there’s also a recurring charge that I forget about, but hey, at least this way I get a little of my own pixie dust before the kids get their greedy little paws on it. 

 

So there’s probably a reason this subscription service thing is catching on. Just saw Vagera on Seth Myers toting her new underwear subscription service which gives 10% of it’s profits to empowering women. Regardless I’m on board. I’m partial to Stitch Fix because they have a price range I can get behind and have “got” my style down pat. I’ve only had to return stuff because of techincal difficulties (a dress that you couldn’t wear with a bra and uncomfortable shoes from 9 West…now I just make sure they don’t send me shoes) So they include a return bag, you have 3 days to decide what you’re going to keep, so while I would dilly dally with a 30 day return policy I’m motivated to take make a decision right away which isn’t a strong suit for Organic Freedoms, Smart Freedoms and Funs. It’s something Classics, Organic Structures and Smart Structures would probably just do without thinking, so yeah, it’s something the Pixies can get behind. Classic Kelly is more into this service.

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