Talk about extremes.
I’m out of town at a conference and yesterday, while waiting for the doors to open, I read a shocking shopping statistic in USA Today that knocked me off my feet.
According to a Stores magazine survey of over 4,000 consumers, 52% agreed that they couldn’t live without discount shopping for apparel.
What?!?!
Particularly considering the ongoing crisis we’re all following in Japan, I can count the things I can’t live without on one hand: food, water, shelter, and emergency medical care.
That’s it. Internet, cell phones, cable/satellite TV and hair cuts and colors, which were the other items in the survey, are far from necessities.
Considering that my day started with this absurd reflection of our current culture, I was extremely fortunate to have it close with the most inspiring lecture by Wayne Dyer who, by the way, shared with our group that he doesn’t own a computer and has no email address.
Now, if this New York Times bestselling author who has literally transformed millions of lives around the world with his books and messages can survive without a computer, I’m pretty confident that we can all get through the day without visiting a discount shopping site.
So while you may feel an urge to run out and grab today’s VPOD, a fab vintage Gucci shopping tote with a clean leather patch to hold your own monogram, let’s be very clear that grabbing this beauty would satisfy a want, not a need.
It’s a conscious choice for a vintage fashionista!
Available at Vintage Patisserie.
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Thanks for your thoughtful comment. As someone with many friends and family members affected by our current recession, I agree totally that discount shopping is a lifeline and perhaps even a necessity for many people. And like yourself I also never pay retail for new clothes. Even so, I’m not sure anyone, anywhere can make a valid argument for not being able to live without a discount shopping site (like Gilt, Haute Look, etc.) or ever “needing” a designer handbag or another new pair of high heels.
Maybe they meant that they couldn’t live without discount shopping because with the cost of living at record high levels, they couldn’t continue to clothes themselves paying full retail prices.
I don’t pay retail for any clothes, ever. I can’t afford to.
But I like the idea of going computerless…if only for a vacation a couple of times a year.