The Sad State of the Goodie Bag: An Unattractive Whinge.

By Tom Okay, some of the local department stores have been having one of their Loveliness Week (named changed) where they have a gift with purchase. Back in the day (he typed, hitching up his old man pants) this really was a time to have saved up for. Annick Goutal would have a not-very-small sized Eau d'Hadrien with a purchase of a full sized bottle of whatever, and other houses had GWP's of almost equal worth. The store in question would also send you home with a shopping bag chock full of stuff: generous samples of various cremes and pots of gooke de femme (nod to Joe Keenan) and lipsticks in shades of beige that I couldn't use but would set out at work for anyone to take. By the Aughts however things started getting tighter. Samples became smaller and smaller. GWP from individual companies also became less interesting. But I'd still save up my purchases to blow in Loveliness Week to get the freebie. The last couple however, I've skipped. Mainly because they seem to do one every two months or so, and because the GWP consists of about 5 samples of stuff that frankly I should be getting for just coming in: a couple of beensy cologne sample and a smidge or two of eye cream, that I had to make a minimum purchase of $100 to get. The one company I do have to say still has a decent freebie is Kiehl's. No matter how many Loveliness Weeks there are in a year, they still have a nice little GWP. Since I happen to be a big fan of their shampoos, body washes, shave cream and several of their face stuff I am happy to collate my purchases to hit the $85 to get their GWP. But I really miss those Hadrien bottles.. Photo:Wikipedia Commons