Wednesday, November 19, 2008
"It’s hard to tighten your belt when you’ve always had an elastic waistband"
Posted by Rachel at 2:15 PM
On yesterday's drive into work listening to Matty in the Morning, I was impressed by guest Lauren Beckham Falcone, columnist for the Boston Herald. Lauren was upbeat, intelligent and down to earth-just the company I like for my morning coffee and commute.
Lauren sparked conversation around the topic of holiday spending, or the supposed lack of. Many young people are lucky to consider themselves somewhat detached from the whole economic rut. I don't want to make light of the thousands of jobs that have been lost, but you've only got so much to lose when you're new to the workplace and are used to living paycheck to paychecks anyways.
Below is Lauren's comical yet interesting take on the shoppers that she's seen lined up at the local malls and why they are still vying for deals. I think she hit it on the nose.
Recession shmecession: When the economy flops, America shops
by Lauren Beckham Falcone
Riddle me this: if we’re all teetering on financial ruin, why is it impossible to find a parking space at the mall? It’s like rush hour on the expressway: horns blaring, people cursing and no one moving.
And that’s outside. Inside? Teeming with shoppers throwing elbows for a bargain iPod Nano.
Checkout lines are the new bread lines.
At Banana Republic at the Chestnut Hill mall this past weekend, there was a 15-minute wait just to try stuff on. And Bloomingdale’s was booming, with Big Brown Bags stuffed with boxes and baubles, thanks to a 20 percent discount atop a 40-percent-off sale.
Define “cash-strapped,” please?
The thing is, no matter how scary our bank statements get, we cannot stop shopping. The consumer generation doesn’t know how to do anything else. Meandering around the mall is America’s daily exercise. Yes, the high-end section of the Natick Collection is choking, with its luxury stores and their over-the-top price tags, but if you can’t afford the Prada, there’s a Payless right around the corner.
And as God is our witness, we’ll never go without a food court corn dog again.
Rather than rein it in, we just change where we ring it up. Recessionistas are an actual, sought-after demographic. The reformed label-lusting set haven’t curtailed their devil-may-care spending, they’ve just traded in their Saks card for a Marshall’s Visa. Discount stores are thriving, with Wal-Mart and BJs posting gains when everyone is in the red.
And now we have “returnistas” - those who buy, panic and return. It’s the retail version of “I didn’t inhale.”
Like the lush who kicked the booze for a few weeks, people who avoided the malls in September are rewarding themselves with a buying bender - on bargains, yes, but a good deal is just a gateway drug.
It’s hard to believe - especially when you’re 10 deep in line to buy a kid’s coat at Gymboree and listening to “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” for the zillionth time - that retail sales plunged by a record amount last month, down 2.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted $363.7 billion, the largest decline since such studies began in 1992, the Commerce Department said.
Yet consumer confidence rose unexpectedly, according to a survey released last Friday. Give credit to tumbling gasoline prices. Or maybe folks were buoyed by the fact that the Coach bag they coveted was sold out.
And heaven forbid you lose steam during a spree. At Simon malls, not only can you catch Santa, shows, movies, sales, free valet and preferred parking for carpoolers, you can chill at the Rejuvenation Stations, complete with soft-seating lounge areas with big-screen TVs, free coffee and beverages and a concierge service.
Sure, spending is great for the economy. I bought a flat screen just so the terrorists wouldn’t win. But even when we should be saving, cutting back and doing without, we’re searching for sales, standing in line and slowly, but surely, racking up our credit cards, even if it’s in smaller increments.
For Americans long used to instant gratification, the bottom line is this: It’s hard to tighten your belt when you’ve always had an elastic waistband.
And that’s outside. Inside? Teeming with shoppers throwing elbows for a bargain iPod Nano.
Checkout lines are the new bread lines.
At Banana Republic at the Chestnut Hill mall this past weekend, there was a 15-minute wait just to try stuff on. And Bloomingdale’s was booming, with Big Brown Bags stuffed with boxes and baubles, thanks to a 20 percent discount atop a 40-percent-off sale.
Define “cash-strapped,” please?
The thing is, no matter how scary our bank statements get, we cannot stop shopping. The consumer generation doesn’t know how to do anything else. Meandering around the mall is America’s daily exercise. Yes, the high-end section of the Natick Collection is choking, with its luxury stores and their over-the-top price tags, but if you can’t afford the Prada, there’s a Payless right around the corner.
And as God is our witness, we’ll never go without a food court corn dog again.
Rather than rein it in, we just change where we ring it up. Recessionistas are an actual, sought-after demographic. The reformed label-lusting set haven’t curtailed their devil-may-care spending, they’ve just traded in their Saks card for a Marshall’s Visa. Discount stores are thriving, with Wal-Mart and BJs posting gains when everyone is in the red.
And now we have “returnistas” - those who buy, panic and return. It’s the retail version of “I didn’t inhale.”
Like the lush who kicked the booze for a few weeks, people who avoided the malls in September are rewarding themselves with a buying bender - on bargains, yes, but a good deal is just a gateway drug.
It’s hard to believe - especially when you’re 10 deep in line to buy a kid’s coat at Gymboree and listening to “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” for the zillionth time - that retail sales plunged by a record amount last month, down 2.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted $363.7 billion, the largest decline since such studies began in 1992, the Commerce Department said.
Yet consumer confidence rose unexpectedly, according to a survey released last Friday. Give credit to tumbling gasoline prices. Or maybe folks were buoyed by the fact that the Coach bag they coveted was sold out.
And heaven forbid you lose steam during a spree. At Simon malls, not only can you catch Santa, shows, movies, sales, free valet and preferred parking for carpoolers, you can chill at the Rejuvenation Stations, complete with soft-seating lounge areas with big-screen TVs, free coffee and beverages and a concierge service.
Sure, spending is great for the economy. I bought a flat screen just so the terrorists wouldn’t win. But even when we should be saving, cutting back and doing without, we’re searching for sales, standing in line and slowly, but surely, racking up our credit cards, even if it’s in smaller increments.
For Americans long used to instant gratification, the bottom line is this: It’s hard to tighten your belt when you’ve always had an elastic waistband.
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