I went to 5000 women's clothing stores. It is all running together, but luckily I took a few pictures of the tags of stuff. I did buy one shirt at White House Black Market (never shopped there before, very fancy!).
Express: too trendy
Limited: overwhelming (not sure why) and too trendy. Probably should have tried on a few things but I was overwhelmed.
Ann Taylor: liked lots, but if was the first stop, so I didn't go crazy. Would definitely go back.
Nordstroms: terrible. Now, our store is small. But for women's they had the younger casual stuff, and they had old lady dress clothes, and dresses, and SUPER expensive stuff, but literally nothing in the "regular work clothes" category.
Ann Taylor Loft: liked one shirt a lot, but most stuff felt flimsy and like it wouldn't hold up. I HATE thin fabric that you have to wear layers under or it is see through! But the one shirt, I might keep an eye on online and see if it goes on deep discount. I should have tried pants on here, but the store was busy and overwhelming. Would go back just for pants on a weekday.
Banana Republic: found pants I loves, but didn't have my color and size combo. Will check online.
WHBM: Liked a bunch of shirts, but they all had these silver grommet/button decoration thingys. That is apparently their "look" this season as 3/4th the shirts in the store had them. I wouldn't mind for casual wear, but not a fan of that for office wear. Did buy the one shirt, which was a nice heavy knit, unlike 99% of what I saw (Ann Taylor was pretty much the only other place with some heavier fabrics).
Talbots: my one pair of slacks is from there, but I disliked everything I tried on.
Eddie Bauer: one pair of their travel line of pants that I really liked, but they were ankle pants and didn't come longer. One blouse I really liked, but it only came in black and olive, which do not appeal to me. I will keep an eye in the spring though, maybe they will have more appealing colors.
The other thing I noticed was that apparently navy blue is "in" right now- every store had lots of navy stuff. I hate navy because you need all new everything to match with it. I only do black/dark grey. I guess because of all the navy, there was almost nothing in lighter blues, which is my most flattering color. Lots of deep reds, which I dislike. Oh well!
The other thing I noticed was the shocking profusion of skin tight "dress pants". They were all super comfy, so yay for that! But slapping a pair of pockets and some belt loops on yoga pants =/= office wear in my stodgy opinion! I am old, apparently.
So from here, I am going to hit Penneys and Kohls without kids this week, and if the mall that has those 2 stores has BR, AT, or Loft, I might pick a few things up there if Penneys and Kohls are a bust.