Let me start by saying I am not a writer. I did not major in journalism or English at the University of Delaware. However, I did major in drinking beer from a beer bong with a minor in how to get the maximum amount of free drinks at the bar (usually the Stone Balloon, Bruce Springsteen’s venue of choice). Let’s just say I started honing my eagle eye in men and drinks, which naturally got me working in sales (sorry feminists).

After college, I moved to Utah in 1993 and the coolest restaurant opening at the time was the Olive Garden in downtown Salt Lake City. I kid you not, there was a line out the door the entire opening weekend.

I loved the mountains, but the shopping was dreadful. Goodbye, King of Prussia mall outside my native Philadelphia. Hello, Gart Bros. I longed for my Philly stores such as Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Eagle’s Eye, which morphed into the Tory Burch empire. All I could find was Kokopelli trivets and Timberland boots.

I am a shopper. I like material objects. I like beautiful things from 50 cent art cards to $400 La Botte Gardiane boots, which I just purchased (but don’t tell my husband) from Hathenbruck in Park City. Yes, I just wrote that. It’s permanent now. All of the yoga and meditation about non-attachment clearly isn’t working.

I used to sell, or “schlepp,” ads, as the sales department calls it, for City Weekly for 12 years. I got around a lot during that time to an incredible amount of restaurants and retail shops. A lot has changed on the retail front in the past two decades, and that brings me back to City Weekly.

Publisher John Saltas called me and asked if I would be open to writing a feature about shopping. I thought, “What experience do I have, and why not hire a ‘real’ writer?”

But then I thought, “I am a consumer. I am a shop girl with lots of time and rich husband. OK, I think I can do this. Who doesn’t love to get paid to shop?”

This is actually a pretty dreamy job. Instead of telling my family that I’ve been shopping all day, I can say I’ve been out doing research. Maybe they will stop calling me a brat if they know this is “real” research.

I’m all over town, but if you happen to see some cool local shops or products please email me. I want the scoop on what’s local and what’s exciting to you.

Follow Christa on Twitter @ChristaZaro and on Instagram @phillytoslc.