Where America shops, pt. 2
My picks from the Walmarts, Wayfairs, and more. (SORRY!)
Hello to all you newcomers! I’m Leonora. I’m the former Editor-in-Chief/VP Content of Hunker (which is dying its slow media death). I love design and interiors. I also love Gen X/Gen Y nostalgia and co-authored a book about it. Follow me @_leonoraepstein and/or @schmattamag. (Also I’m available for hire for consulting.)
Last week, I had the complete honor of giving you all a guest post from the inimitable
But having gone through this exercise many times before as a design editor, I somehow still cling to the idea that buried somewhere in one of those mass retailers will be the genius $50 item no one ever saw coming. This has happened once in my life, in my twenties, when I bought a bookshelf from Target’s kids’ collection and everyone loved it. So, I’ve done my best to dig deep into Wayfair, Walmart, and The Home Depot for items that don’t totally suck. That said, DISCLAIMER:
A) I seriously can’t vouch for the quality of any of these products, and not all of them are bargain-basement-cheap. (Common misconception about Wayfair…you can spend serious money there on one thing.)
B) It’s always, always better to buy the real thing than buying the mass-produced thing trying to be that real thing. Or just buy used/vintage.
C) My tip for finding decent items on these sites is to not use their internal search. At this point, Google Shopping is so scarily good that it knows my style exactly. Try googling “Wayfair blue chair” (if that’s what you’re after) and see what comes up in Shopping suggestions.
Happy hunting! If you’ve ever scored something awesome at a big box store, tell us about it in the comments/leave a link. And if you liked this and want me to do another retailer, give me a shout!
Cheers!
Leo
The USM dupes like that Twillery one… idk! I've watched them pop up, sell out, and get pulled from places like Wayfair and Walmart for a while. Seems like they're decent budget replicas (and they're HUGE on tiktok), but annoying to build and pretty flimsy.
But I guess you get what you pay for?
So many cute picks!