By Anna Petrov

Staff Writer

The upcoming spring and summer trends seen on the runways, then sold in stores include affordable merchandise. Several well-known department stores and boutiques found at plazas and malls carry these options.

Many department stores like Nordstrom Rack, Marshalls and Ross include designer brands for reasonable prices and have big sales both seasonally and during holidays. Similarly, boutiques like Forever 21, Charlotte Russe, Wet Seal and H&M have similar clearance promotions, which carry incredibly chic apparel and accessories.

“I would definitely recommend Forever 21 for they have a broad choice of clothes, and then newest trends and it’s very affordable,” CSUSM student, Ronja Skauge, said.

Being able to afford the latest trends for a fair price can be quite rewarding and CSUSM students need access to apparel outlets where they don’t have to spend too much of their income.

“My top little last minute shopping store is Wet Seal. They normally have good deals, [and] also include a fashion discount part that saves people five percent overall [on] their entire transaction… latest trends of clothes, always good sales,” another CSUSM student, Victoria Escobedo, added.

Furthermore, stores like Kohl’s, T.J. Maxx and the small boutique Francesca’s, specifically contain elegant jewelry, or bags of different shapes and sizes.

Since the beginning of the internet, shopping online has become highly popular, providing more options of merchandise to buy. Not to mention, customers have access to all different kinds of stores online.

Yet, from personal experience, buying shoes or other merchandise online from stores like Charlotte Russe that also has a store in each county or state may be more trustworthy because you are buying from a more established brand, rather than purchasing from online stores that are only virtual.

Shopping has been done for many decades, and buying great quality goods by saving money is a better bargain.