Williams-Sonoma was one of my favorite stores back in the day when I was a corporate wife and rarely gave a thought to how much I spent and where. Not the sort of place where you’d expect to find a bargain. But…miracles happen.
Yesterday I had to traipse to the Apple store, located (where else?) in one of the city’s ritziest shopping centers. While I was there, I wandered into the Williams-Sonoma to see if they had some salad plates in the type of pattern I favor. They didn’t — my taste is now royally out of style — but they did have some in a plain navy blue that would do the job.
These plates are for the dogs. The ones I had, from an old set from Pier 1 that looked great in the store but not so great on the table, have been dropped on the floor and chipped so many times, it was getting time to replace them. Both dogs, being corgis, feel compelled to hoover up every molecule of dog food off their plates, which means they vigorously lick their dishes so clean it’s hard to tell the things haven’t been through the dishwasher. So a chipped rim risks slashing a doggle’s tongue.
So anyway, as you can imagine, I was not thrilled at the prospect of spending much on dog dishes.
Williams-Sonoma is having a 20% off sale on everything in sight…including things that are already on sale. In the back of the store, they have a clearance section. Some of the things there, mostly odd items, are quite pretty.
Lo! On the clearance shelf, there were a half-dozen coupe-style salad plates, very handsome and very un-clunky, already marked down to something under six bucks apiece. Though not exactly what I had in mind, they would do the job.
Couldn’t believe it! I got six for $23 and change! That’s less than $4 apiece. That’s on a par with the similar but much cheesier dishes available at the Fry’s or the Target.
Blue plate specials!