After you exit the parking lot of most Wal-Mart stores in East Texas you will see a small shopping center, including a small store, Cato and at some Wal-Mart stores you will find the “Cato sister store“, It’s Fashion. Cato and It’s Fashion are women’s fashion store. The small store is crowded with in style clothing.
The circular path leading around the small store seems smaller every time I walk around it. But Cato is sure to only sale the most stylish clothes according to the season of the year.
As I walked through the store I can not help but notice the lack of selection and styles. Although the clothing was very attractive the style was limited to the Cato fashion in other words, church clothes. There was nothing I would really wear on just an average weekday. I think that if a business is a “woman’s attire” business I think they should provide for all women. Cato was lacking in the larger woman clothing selection and had no selection for maternity. I guess it would not make sense to cram all sizes in the small stores, but it seemed like most of the clothes that they were selling were in sizes 6-9, which does not really make sense because “supposedly” the average woman wears a size 14. And most Wal-Mart shoppers wear a much larger size than that. You would think that if there was a demand for larger size outfits that they would meet those demands. I once was shopping at a Cato store for a friend’s bachelorette party. I picked up a cute pair of lacey panties. To understand my frustration of the sales woman, I wear about an 8 in panties and my friend might be able to fit in a 2. I laid down the coupe pairs of underwear and the lady looked at me and kept repeating how little the panties were. Not necessarily saying anything to direct but saying small comments such as “man these are tiny panties”. I just did not say anything to her about it. I guess it was strange if I was buying it for myself, but is it normal for women to have absolutely no idea what size underwear they wear? Why would they think that I, a grown woman, would have no idea what size I wear?
Cato’s neighbor across the street, It’s Fashion, maybe Cato’s sister store but the style is obviously different. While Cato’s Fashion appeals to the career driven woman, It’s Fashion appeals to a whole different generation of woman. This is not the place to shop if describe yourself as “modest”. I do not think I saw a single shirt that did not either cling to every inch of my upper body, or if it did not show sixty percent of my breasts. Jeans that feel like they might split fro how tight they are or breast showing shirts, and a pair of black leather hooker boots, are not quite my style. I felt pretty out of place walking through the store but the sales women were extremely personable and almost made the store bearable. It’s Fashion does have more of a selection in more women’s sizes than Cato. So it was refreshing to see a store catering to all woman’s needs. Even though I did not find anything that suited y everyday life, I did find the shopping experience humorous, since there were only my friends and I there, otherwise it would probably be quite embarrassing.
So if you are looking for that cute outfit for that dinner party or a cute modest skirt for your Sunday morning study group, I would completely recommend that you shop at Cato, if you are a larger set woman than I guess you can hope that they extra stacked in your size. On the other hand, if you are looking for that sexy outfit for a night out in Tyler’s unpopular night clubs filled with bar flies and overweight want-to-be cowboys and small dance floors, then by all means shop at It’s Fashion. Don’t forget that you can complete your outfits and frost yourself in the cute accessories and jewelry at both these stores.