10 TV character shopping obsessions

Rachel loves Pottery Barn but Phoebe hates it — Friends

Potter Barn seems like a weird thing for a character to hate, but Phoebe was never one to conform. I mean … what’s not to love about moderately priced, mass-produced, quasi-eclectic furniture that offers the impression that you have good taste without actually having to make any real style decisions? Wait, I think I just answered my own question.

This was the point of contention between Phoebe and Rachel over an apothecary table purchased from the chain store. Phoebe, being Phoebe, despises the lack of history and charm the store offers for each piece, so Rachel lies, at first, about the table’s origins. She tells Phoebe it’s from a flea market, and Phoebe is satisfied until she sees the same piece in Ross’ apartment. After lots of Friends-style hijinks, the two come around and it comes out that everything Rachel has in the apartment is from Pottery Barn.

I get the debate, I really do. However I’m too distracted about the implausibility of these two being able to afford a thousand dollar table for their living room to take a side. This is just more fodder for the conversation about how these characters afford anything in their life. They have really nice stuff, and kind of terrible jobs, so it just doesn’t track. The show has been off the air for years and years now, so I’m calling for writers and actors to finally justify how they lived the kind of lives when they had the kind of jobs they had.