Okay, I admit it, working fulltime online for over a year, venturing out only to the pharmacy and grocery, I am hooked on Nordstrom Rack online. So far, I bought myself one pair each of vegan leather-looking black pants and black leggings; one pair blue print jeans; and one black and white hounds tooth jacket because it looks just like one my mother Ruthie used to have. I loved it! I wonder who got to keep Ruthie’s? Now I have my own.

Shipping is free if the item is picked up at a Nordstrom’s store, and I have one nearby. They give a month to make returns, which is really great. The store is beautiful and people who work there are quite helpful and very well trained and prepared for their jobs. They are very knowledgeable and helpful.

My parents had a home on Bay Harbor Island, right over the bridge ride from North Miami Beach. That’s how I became familiar with Nordstrom’s. Then, my friend Stacey, who used to trade off nights emceeing with me at the New York Comedy Club in NYC, introduced me to the Rack and that was it. I went with her, bought one open carry bag pocketbook kind of thing, and that was it. Never went back, but then an ad appeared online and I was hooked.

However, through all of those earlier contact points with their stores, I never realized that what has happened now was most probably inevitable. My computer knows my brassiere size. It was quite a shock. I went to Nordstrom’s to pick up a pair of jeans I ordered and asked for a dressing room to try them on. My left leg fit into the pants just right; however, I could not put both legs into the jeans at the same time, meaning they were a bit too small for me. I returned them and received a full credit. As long as I was in the store, I decided to check out the lingerie department. I recently lost some weight, making certain parts of my clothing not quite fit properly

Here’s how it happened. I had a wonderful young woman measure me and verified that I needed a new size brassiere. Surprisingly my circumference shrunk, but nothing else. I bought one. That evening I was quite surprised to see a Chantelle advertisement appear on my laptop screen.  Maybe surprised is the wrong word: upset, infuriated, curious? Apparently there’s an immediate connection/sharing of information between businesses, particularly Amazon, and advertising.  

The second time it happened, I just took it in my stride as a common occurrence these days. I have a favorite Goodyear store in Norwalk, Connecticut for servicing my wonderful car. I went online to find their phone number since I had two different phone numbers come up on my phone; therefore, I went online to check the right one  for Norwalk.

I was pretty sure that one of the two exchanges seemed more familiar than the other, but I felt better confirming that I was right. I called and made an appointment for the next day. Then I walked into my kitchen because I was hungry and made myself a hard-boiled egg sandwich on an Against the Grain gluten free roll with mayonnaise and steamed broccoli rabe. Delicious. I ate the entire sandwich before returning to laptop computer to continue. There, along the side of my screen, was an advertisement for Goodyear. I swear, my computer knows more about me, my habits, and what I do in a day than I do.