When I was growing up, my family collected boxes from all the high end stores. Every time they’d buy something in Jordan Marsh, Remick’s, Gilcrest’s or any other perceived highfalutin store, they would ask for a box or sometimes two. Come Christmas time they would have a collection of boxes from these places and the gifts that they bought from Kresge’s, Woolworths or Zayre’s would get wrapped up nicely in those boxes (always with tissue paper) and given to friends and relatives.
It wasn’t that we were cheap bastards, we were just poor bastards.
When the person receiving our gift unwrapped it, they would always ooh and ahh over the box and how special it was that we got them something from that store.
I don’t think they were fooled. In fact, most of the gifts we received were also in boxes from all the best stores. Since most of our friends and relatives were also poor people, I’ll bet they were engaging in the same deceit that my family did.
If Jordan Marsh made a business out of just selling their boxes, they’d probably still be in business.
