I had my first Hollister experience yesterday. “Experience” is the correct word because that’s what it truly is.

From the moment Danielle (my soon-to-be teenager) said, “Here it is, Mom” I was taken in. The storefront looked like a beach house and was so unique in a line of cookie cutter glass front stores. Upon walking in via the gray wooden front porch step, I found a couple of leather chairs and a table, complete with magazines (trendy, teenage ones, of course.)

Step down into the store and you’ll find wooden and tile floors with great detail. Dim lighting sets the mood. The store is set up in rooms, aligned perfectly with a beach house theme. There were wall-to-wall teens with armloads of clothing. I just wondered where they got the money to shop there so often!

D (as I lovingly refer to Danielle) had her heart set on a hoodie and a shirt. We found the hoodie, and among a table of thin little shirts, she found the one calling her name. I personally would have possibly paid the $40 for the hoodie, but the thin little shirt was pushing it with a $24.50 price tag. It was her money, though…

The surfboards lining the wall behind the register were interesting… They had a lighted wreath hanging from them. Kinda cool…

I would have preferred going back to Gordmans and picked up the three shirts she originally wanted that would have totaled $26.97 (and mysteriously looked like the Hollister shirt.) But alas… “They’re not Hollister, Mom!”

It’s a strange metamorphosis… I’ve become my mother and my daughter has become me.

All in all it was a good day… We spent time together, had fun and she got what she wanted… Hollister.

I guess if you look at it this way, we more than got our money’s worth…