Start Here: Rani on 'why' Retail Therapy

🛍️Gray hair and acne. Jeans that never fit. When life stops making sense, we shop! Retail Therapy is a quirky take on how we spend our time and money.

Feb 25, 2026

☔ I’m Rani, pronounced like the weather. You know: “Wow, it sure is a rainy day out there!”

My Ideal Look

Jeans, a great-fitting cropped Chanel-esque blazer, and a concert t-shirt. But a legit tee — from shows I attended and bands I love — not some silly reprint from Target, before we stopped shopping there, of course.

I Believe

Coats should be fashion statements, only
There is no such thing as “too much” tie-dye
If you haven’t touched it & tried it on, don’t ever buy anything ‘final sale’

Oh, and I haven’t decided what I want to be when I grow up, so I stopped aging.

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Why Retail Therapy

Nothing is simple, straightforward or sensical. Retail Therapy is my quirky, sideways look at the shopping I do when my angst takes over. When things feel out of my control; when I don’t feel like I’m enough; and the world is busy yelling at me that I’m too much. Or when I'm over-thinking something — yet again!

Like when I started getting gray hair, something a co-worker pointed out. A guy, no less. So I had to figure out the whole coloring my hair thing when I hadn’t even gotten my acne under control. Now, I battle both.

Distractions turn to obsessions and take over — from the importance of the First Amendment to why fashion hates middle-age women. But I don’t stop there. As a former business reporter, I have to follow the dollars — and make some sense. Sense. Cents. You get it.

The Non-CV Me

I work in tech and have for the past 2 decades, but why be specific and age myself? My writing explores how money and time influence our life decisions, big and small. Why these two variables of time and money? Not to sound like a textbook, but these are the only two things you can change and expect a different outcome. Plus, I can be quite literal, and this is a perfect example. But I’ve also yet to see this truism disproven. And I’ve tried, because I love to challenge assumptions.

Here’s what I mean. I spend a lot of time reading the internet and working on my pollinator plants. The plants are easy to justify — they’re pretty, smell amazing, and I love getting dirt under my fingernails, much to the chagrin of my manicurist, Andy. But reading Celebrity gossip, that’s harder to defend. I still don’t know who half the folks are on a red carpet or awards show. And my addiction to buying piles of clothes online just to try to find one thing that worth keeping? That’s dumb. No, that’s insane. It’s a waste of time and money; returning it takes even longer. The question is why I keep doing this, over and over again — that’s Retail Therapy.

Retail Therapy explores why we keep doing things that, rationally, we know are silly.

Why Retail Therapy Right Now

I’m writing Retail Therapy now because I’m done waiting for permission to publish the pieces I believe are important. The work I want to explore and the stories I want to read. I’ve spent the past several years pitching mainstream publications. I’ve had bits of success, but it’s mostly waiting, not writing. I want to write the stories I want — today. Stories like:

How music is the best way to study history
Why independent watch brands are having a moment

So I’m done awaiting someone else’s approval. Now I’m making the rules.

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You may notice there are no affiliate links or sponsorships here. Because of your support, Retail Therapy is fully unfiltered. You know, in a way we’d never drink water.

Free subscribers get a lot. But paid subscribers get it all — every post, every conversation, full access. Your price locks in the day you subscribe and never goes up. Ever.

You’re paying a writer for their work and helping fund my bougie dog, Radio’s, acupuncture. He still hasn’t gotten a job. Or an agent.