For my shopping experience, I decided to compare a women’s dress, men’s t-shirt, and little girls’ skirt from Downeast and Nordstrom. Overall, Nordstrom seemed to have superior quality to Downeast. That being said, Downeast was, by no means, low quality. I learned that when shopping, you typically get what you pay for. The most noticeable trend I noticed, however, is that when shopping at Nordstrom, more often than not, you are paying a lot of extra money for brand names. The clothing at Nordstrom is often higher quality than that of Downeast, but not over ten times better quality. I definitely believe that when you pay $475 for a dress (as the one I examined costed), you are not simply paying for good quality—you are paying to wear the name “Kate Spade”.

The one item that seemed like a fair value from both stores was the little girls’ skirt. Both skirts I examined were of fairly good quality. Despite a few unapparent sewing flaws or loose buttons (which could easily be fixed), the skirts were great quality and seemed to have the durability to last for wild children! Although I feel $20 is still moderately expensive for a child’s piece of clothing that she will quickly grow out of, I feel the price was fair for both stores and would pay for both skirts.

I, personally, prefer to shop at Nordstrom. Overall I have noticed clothing from Nordstrom lasts longer and I prefer the styles to that of Downeast. Additionally, Nordstrom does have more reasonably priced items; I cannot imagine I would ever justify buying a $500 dress. I would for most people, however, recommend Downeast. The store features cute, reliable clothing for a reasonable cost. As for the individual items I examined, I would recommend buying t-shirts at Nordstrom. Although it is typically more expensive, the men’s t-shirts at Downeast were low-quality and had many issues with the sewing. For kids clothing, I think either store would be a good deal. Both had reasonable quality considering the price and function. Finally, for the women’s dress, I would say it depends on what the shopper wants in a dress. If a shopper is looking for very high quality and is willing to pay extra for the name, the Nordstrom dress is definitely the way to go. Otherwise, shopping at Downeast would be smart (and you could get ten dresses there for the price of one at Nordstrom!).