☔Hello! I’m Rani Monson. My name is pronounced like the weather. You know: “Wow, it sure is a rainy day out there!”
I’m living the Retail Therapy on Substack dream, or something like that. I “grew up” as an old-school newspaper reporter and got paid (pennies) to ask questions. I won some awards and broke lots of stories, covering business and politics. Which means I know a little about a lot and am really good at asking questions that make people uncomfortable. My most recent work is in the Wall Street Journal.
Moving into corporate was interesting. The coffee was much better. Intentionally, I set out to not “do writing” and instead relied on my reporter instincts to develop new skills. Meaning I’ve worked in tech for the last, well, let's just say multiple decades. No need to age myself.
I live in Dallas where I do flow yoga in the driveway and grow native plants in the bathtub. I’m a middle-age doodle dog mom to Radio and do my best shopping in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep, after I’ve woken up to pee. You too?
I get my hair colored monthly to cover the new growth. In between visits, the gray sprouts around my face. I look and feel like a chia pet. Manis and pedis are a must. I rely on regular Botox to keep my forehead in place and filler to keep my chin above my chest. And I love to shop.
But Retail Therapy on Substack by Rani Monson isn’t a shopping site. It looks at why, when life stops making sense, we shop. Since I'm incapable of writing about shopping without also telling you what it costs, where the money comes from and where it goes, that’s all woven in. Honest writing, with humor. There aren’t affiliate links or “buy this now so you live your best life” posts. My intent isn’t to exacerbate our insecurities. We have plenty of those. And I share mine.
My aim is to understand why we shop when we throw our time and money at our angst. Retail Therapy is all of this, blended together in a Vitamix that refuses to look clean. Seriously, what is it about that thing and its cloudy demeanor?
Why Retail Therapy on Substack by Rani Monson
Sure, my career didn’t turn out how I expected, and I’m not the person I thought I’d become. Neither did the math on the lifestyle being sold to us.
Take the lifestyle dangled in front of us — new wardrobe every season and high-end-everything. By my calculations, you'd need to clear $500K to live that way. Only 1% of US households bring in that kind of money.
I’m not living that life. Or the $100 white t-shirt version of it. Why does everyone act like it’s normal to own a few of these from different brands? You know, so you can have all the cuts: fitted, loose, boxy. When did that become a thing, much less normal? Me: I’d spill on it before I even left the house, the first time I wore it.
I’ve lived on all sides of the money equation. I had to start supporting myself as a teen. From a summer job — switching people’s long distance provider, back when landlines were still a thing — I bought my first house at 20.
I do the math on what we spend, largely because I don’t know how to “not” do this. I’ve been trained — much better than Radio, if I’m honest — with my background studying economics, as a business reporter, and later getting an MBA.
We all want to know what things actually cost but nobody is willing to say. So I do.
When life stops making sense, we shop. More soon.
