In This Article
30-Second Summary
Headline Links: ‘Is This the World’s Cheapest Dress?’
Background: Overall consumer spending down
Historical Context: Film attendance during the Great Depression
Opinion & Analysis: ‘Everyone’s a Fashion Critic,’ cheap clothing and fair trade
Reference: FindingDulcinea’s Web Guide to Bargain Hunting
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Fashion and 'Sin Sectors' Flourish Despite Economic Downturn
May 05, 2008 12:20 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Despite rising unemployment, financial industry woes and falling real estate prices, consumers are finding solace in two age-old pastimes: shopping and entertainment.
30-Second Summary
Despite the mortgage and banking crisis and a recent drop in overall consumer spending, millions of consumers are finding retail therapy in cheap clothes, drink and entertainment.
The Department of Commerce released data on April 30 showing the weakest growth in overall consumer spending since 2001. The New York Times called the data evidence of “a growing inclination toward thrift.”
But checkout lines were jammed at New York’s bargain fashion outlets, and “sin sector” spending for alcohol and entertainment showed strong growth during the same quarter.
The 246 branches of affordable fashion chain Steve and Barry’s have shown strong retail profit numbers, and checkout lines at the store’s midtown Manhattan branch are often 20-people long. Said actress Sarah Jessica Parker, the designer of Steve and Barry’s Bitten line, “For a lot of people … there is this idea about wanting fashion in an affordable way. They are living in a less rarefied world.”
The movie industry, long a panacea for economic pain, is also flourishing. “Attendance actually increased during three of the last four recessions,” writes the Los Angeles Times. During the Great Depression, 60 million to 80 million Americans regularly turned to the cinema for escape.
Many Americans may also find comfort in drink and cigarettes; if trends seen during the slump earlier this decade were any indication, so-called “sin stocks” will stay strong as well.
The Department of Commerce released data on April 30 showing the weakest growth in overall consumer spending since 2001. The New York Times called the data evidence of “a growing inclination toward thrift.”
But checkout lines were jammed at New York’s bargain fashion outlets, and “sin sector” spending for alcohol and entertainment showed strong growth during the same quarter.
The 246 branches of affordable fashion chain Steve and Barry’s have shown strong retail profit numbers, and checkout lines at the store’s midtown Manhattan branch are often 20-people long. Said actress Sarah Jessica Parker, the designer of Steve and Barry’s Bitten line, “For a lot of people … there is this idea about wanting fashion in an affordable way. They are living in a less rarefied world.”
The movie industry, long a panacea for economic pain, is also flourishing. “Attendance actually increased during three of the last four recessions,” writes the Los Angeles Times. During the Great Depression, 60 million to 80 million Americans regularly turned to the cinema for escape.
Many Americans may also find comfort in drink and cigarettes; if trends seen during the slump earlier this decade were any indication, so-called “sin stocks” will stay strong as well.
Headline Links: ‘Is This the World’s Cheapest Dress?’
The chain Steve and Barry’s economizes in its daily operations, allowing it to sell dresses for under $9. Its offices are furnished with goods from company cofounder Barry Prevor’s parents’ basement. The company books its business travel accommodations at budget chains such as Motel 6, and the employee-to-printer ratio is 50 to 1.
Source: The New York Times (free registration required)
Hollywood may profit this summer from the bad economy, as it usually does when the country is struggling financially. “Attendance actually increased during three of the last four recessions,” reports the Los Angeles Times, and “The ‘movies-cure-all-ills’ formula seems to favor big-budget ‘event’ films.”
Source: Los Angeles Times (free registration may be required)
Wealth Daily writes, “Tough economic times won't stop gamblers from gambling, drinkers from drinking, or smokers from smoking. It's not going to happen. In fact, tough economics may give them more reason to indulge in smokes, drinks, and gambling—the catalysts for ‘sin’ stocks.”
Source: Wealth Daily
Background: Overall consumer spending down
Consumers appear to be succumbing to the pressures of falling home prices and small paychecks. The Commerce Department reported on Wednesday that a sharp pullback in consumer spending was a major factor in the stagnating economy in the first three months of the year.
Source: The New York Times (free registration may be required)
Historical Context: Film attendance during the Great Depression
During the worst-off years of the Great Depression, some 60–80 million Americans went to the movies each week. Willie Hays, the director of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association, said in 1934, “No medium has contributed more greatly than the film to the maintenance of the national morale during a period featured by revolution, riot and political turmoil in other countries.” The industry itself was not as robust during the severe economic slump—revenues dropped 40 percent between the late 1920s and 1933.
Source: Digital History
Opinion & Analysis: ‘Everyone’s a Fashion Critic,’ cheap clothing and fair trade
Robin Ghivan, the editor of the fashion page for The Washington Post, writes in an editorial for fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar that the advent of ready-to-wear clothing lines allowed people outside of the fashion world, as well as lower-income consumers, to dictate trends. “Now it’s possible to go into Target and buy a $29.99 designer frock along with a new litter box for Fifi. … Pop stars have become designers; designers have become TV stars.”
Source: Harper’s Bazaar
“It’s no secret that sweatshop labor is behind much of the clothing sold today,” argues Coop America’s Web guide to fair trade and eco-conscious clothing. “Starvation wages, forcing employees to work unpaid overtime, denying bathroom breaks and sick leave, and retaliating against workers who seek better treatment … may lead to cheap clothing on the consumer end,” but it comes “at the expense of workers.” The Web site offers links and resources for finding affordable fair-trade-certified and environmentally friendly clothing.
Source: Coop America ‘Real Living’
Reference: FindingDulcinea’s Web Guide to Bargain Hunting
FindingDulcinea’s Web Guide to Bargain Hunting has a host of resources to help online shoppers live richly on a tight budget, including how to snare the best deals, score free samples and find e-retailer coupon codes.
Source: findingDulcinea
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