Jos A Banks

A year ago, Brian and I started to see the light at the end of our school time tunnel. Brian would be applying for jobs and going on interviews. He had NO clothes for this as he was in college and had no need and in his past career as a Chef...you don't need nice clothes. I asked my Mom and Dad for a gift card to Jos A Banks. I knew this was a high end store and would be more expensive then lets say J.C. Penney.  I felt that they had a really good product and while we couldn't afford it without the gift card I thought it would be nice to have Brian's first work appropriate outfit come from here.

I know Jos A Banks pretty well. All of my fathers suits and ties and shoes have come from there as far as I know. I grew up thinking/knowing that when you need work clothes and your a male you go to Jos A Banks. They may be expensive but they last forever as long as you don't gain or lose a lot of weight but that really isn't their problem is that? I had even gotten my father, several years ago at this point, a gift card there and he got multiple things with it.

Santa, that year, very generously gave Brian a $250 gift card to Jos A Banks. We kept it until we felt sure everything was going to go to plan and for fear of losing/gaining weight and not being able to fit into the new clothes. Well as Brian officially graduated last week and with several applications out, we figured that on our 4 day weekend together we would go use that gift card.

Today was that day. First problem: They have been having BOGO (Buy One Get One free) sales. Those sales are not valid when paid for by a gift card. They were not having such sales when Santa bought the gift card and have only started having them recently probably due to the economy. We did know this ahead of time, not happy about it but we had seen it in an ad previously. We had no idea that the entire store would be BOGO. My original idea  was that we would purchase a nice suit or put the $250 towards a nice suit for Brian. I am a strong believer that every male in the business world should have at least one good suit. Even if he does not wear one to work, he should have one.

So we go in and realize that the whole store was having a sale which we could not partake in. We then look at the pants. The $60 dollar a pair pants were of this really weird material. Definitely not what we were thinking of. The pants we had in mind were $90. We then went over to the suits to see if we could swing my original idea. Well, I did not like any of them. They all cost more then our rent. The few that would have been feasible if we could have used our gift card were not that great, we could have gotten better, nicer suits else where. So that idea was out. New idea look at the shirts and ties. Those were finally what I expected.

So our new plan of action is to go to J C Penney for the pants and back to Jos A Banks for a couple shirts and some ties after Christmas. Overall I am pretty disappointed in Jos A Banks. A) for not being able to use our gift card and B) Even if we had all the money in the world there wasn't really a suit there I felt was worth it. The nice pants, ties and button downs, and accessories are fine...we are just broke, but very dissatisfied with the selection of suits. I think we will be checking out Men's Warehouse for the suits.

or we will go to Vietnam a buy a Cashmere made to order suit for 70 pounds like they did in Top Gear.