Research shows that in the post-recession era, wealthy Americans are more inclined to wait for items to go on sale before making purchases. Brand names mean less to them, marketing has less influence as well, and the number of well-off shoppers who say they trust salespeople has plummeted. In other words, the rich today are more likely …
fashion
Gilt Groupe: Will the Lux-for-Less Obsession Last?
In the words of fashion designer Zac Posen: “The media is constantly redefining what luxury is. Luxury can be a dirty sock if dressed up in the right way.” Such is the secret behind Gilt Groupe, the discount luxury flash-sales site that hasn’t yet turned a profit but just convinced investors to throw another $138 million into its chic …
Consumer Research Roundup: 7 Studies Explaining Why You Buy, Why You Have No Free Time, and Why a Designer Good Purchase Can Snowball
Also, there are theories as to why the layout of IKEA stores is so damn confusing, and why the presence of a Walmart in your neighborhood may have caused you to gain weight.
Cheapskate Wisdom … About the Unassuming Millionaires in Your Neighborhood
“These people are not into status, they are not into designer brands.”
10 Angry and Entertaining Consumer Rants
Got rage? Sometimes, going off on a rant—or just reading one—makes you feel a little better. So read. Enjoy. Laugh. Maybe get a little worked up. Or just be happy you’re not the only angry consumer out there. Then breathe and get on with your life.
9 Quirky Signs of the Times
A still-struggling, still-uncertain economy has increased the chances that you can’t help dreaming about the recession, your workspace is shrinking, your roommate could be a millionaire (on paper anyway), and you’re so sick of neighborhood potholes you’re considering filling them in yourself.
The Fashionable Do-Nothing Approach to Grooming, Hygiene, Landscaping, and, Um, Fashion
The conventional wisdom holds that the solution’s to ones problems must involve doing something. But have we overlooked the opposite, easier and cheaper option? Here’s making the case for doing nothing in five spheres of modern-day consumer life.
Cheapskate Wisdom … About How Silly It Is to Buy into ‘Anti-Consumer’ Hipster Culture
“Hipster culture is not a counterculture. On the contrary, the neighborhood organization of hipsters—their tight-knit colonies of similar-looking, slouching people—represents not hostility to authority (as among punks or hippies) but a superior community of status where the game of knowing-in-advance can be played with maximum …
Look in Your Closet for Some Perspective on the Great Recession
The average American now owns about 90 articles of clothing, and that total doesn’t include underwear, socks, bras, or pajamas. Guess how many items of clothing the average person had during the Great Depression?
Now, Fashion Wannabes Just Want ‘Real Clothes’—and to Be Out of Debt
Designers and retailers are realizing that “aspirational” shoppers—who used to swipe their credit cards and pile on the debt to purchase whatever was trendy, and who might otherwise be known as wannabes—just aren’t buying like they were during the boom consumer times of a few years ago. These days, when shoppers are inclined to make …
Cheapskate Wisdom … About Fashion
“Fashion is made to become unfashionable.” — Coco Chanel
“Women dress alike all over the world: they dress to be annoying to other women.” — Elsa Schiaparelli
“A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.” — George Bernard Shaw
Q&A: 365 Days, 365 DIY Dresses, $365
Bored, without a job, facing the mini-crisis of turning 30, and inspired after watching “Julie & Julia,” Marisa Lynch decided to take on a new project last summer: For 365 days in a row, she would mend, cut, dye, stitch, and otherwise transform secondhand clothing into a new dress daily, and she would do so with a budget of just $1 a day.
