Confessions of a "Bargain Shopping" Convert

"If I had a nickel for every time I've bragged about getting something for under $5 I might actually be able to afford something worth buying."

Growing up in a depressed urban outskirt I noticed something.  [Well, I've noticed many things...but most of them don't belong in a jewelry blog!]  I've noticed that when it comes to shopping for the lower to lower middle income classes, there are two types of people.  People that brag about spending too much, and people that brag about spending too little. 

Naturally, I grew up to be one of those types of people.  I happened to be the latter.  As soon as I took my first (real) job at 16 with a survey research firm making $8/dollar an hour I was ready to go....ready to go...thrift and bargain shopping!  Being "artist eccentric" by nature with a fairly modest upbringing, I was trained and ready to make the most out of the least or to, as HGTV puts it, turn "trash into treasure."

Sure, occasionally you find an unworn Max Azria skirt at the Goodwill, and sometimes even a dress from the first half of the 20th century that gives you that je no se quoi that boosts you to widespread fame (ahem, Gwen Stefani - I guess je se quoi!)  This is all fine with discretion of the talented and "lucky" eye.  Sprucing up your apartment with a retro chair can be great.  You can even find some fabulous jewelry and jewelry components at thrift stores.  Basically, thrift shopping is a-okay (although I question those who buy the undergarments), but here's where being a dime store diamond gets iffy...

Now I know this might sound surprising, but I have found there is actually a big difference between "thrift shopping" and "bargain shopping."  Now what I call "bargain shopping" includes a couple of different practices.  For one, it often means buying crap.  Sometimes, in the "best" sense of the phrase it means getting something on sale or off of the clearance rack.  Sometimes this happens incidentally, congratulations! 

Oh, but I know TRUE bargain shoppers.  True bargain shoppers only buy things that are on sale or on a clearance rack.  They see something, a coat for example, that they like and say "I'll wait until it goes out of season and is on sale."  In other words, they'll deny themselves a nice coat during the current winter, or go back to the store in the spring only to find 90% of the time that it is gone or not available in their size.  They might even then proceed to buy the wrong size and look ridiculous.  I know who you are.  Don't be offended.  I've been there - done that, only to later discover I was cold through one winter cursing a coat for looking ridiculous (missized) the next.  In this case I either had to continue the cycle or buy a better fitting coat in the midst of winter (not on sale), the other sitting in the closet in the mean time.  So now, who has found a real bargain?  Not me as I've simply wasted money.  

A real "bargain" is buying a coat (or anything else that you like),giving the merchant a reasonable amount of profit for their time, creativity, and overhead, WEARING IT FITTINGLY and getting good use out of it.  The truth is when people brag "I got this for like $10 on clearance," honey, I usually already know!  If I had a nickel for every time I've bragged about getting something for under $5 I might actually be able to afford something worth buying.

Now, lets talk about the afformentioned point of giving the merchant a reasonable amount of profit for their time, creativity, and overhead.  This sentence is a foreign language to most "bargain hunters."  "Hunters" indeed, because these people prey - their victims desperate merchants, often small business owners, who allow themselves to be haggled down or marked down to the point of knife in the side pain.

In today's economy bargain hunters would defend their practices as being "okay."  If you've ever watched Walmart Nation, you would see on a local to global scale in detail why exactly the opposite is true.  The economy has actually mutated itself to bend to the will of "bargain shoppers."  How's that working out?  Most of us could agree that we do not have a healthy economy, and no, I don't find it to be synonymous with "the free market."  Put simply, spending less for goods that are worth more throws things out of balance.  The merchant and their employers get poorer.  Jobs are lost.  ...and you, the bargain hunter stays poor but thats okay, right?  Afterall you get to keep your crap quality goods...and brag about having "found a bargain."

Knowing I've been in retail, you might say I'm biased, but the truth is my experiences as a designer, manufactuer, retailer, and wholesaler have not shaped my "conversion" as much as my upbringing, fair nature, and ability to see the big picture.  These traits are what have driven me to write this article. 

Now I know if you're living in a shack eating spaghettios and unemployed you're saying "who is she to say I shouldn't be a bargain shopper?"  Well, to that I simply say don't be a shopper!  Hey, you probably shouldn't have the internet either!  ....and sure, preying can work the other way around, but let's use discretion and common sense.  You will usually know whether you're making a mutually fair purchase or not if you really just delve deep and think about it. I'm happy to say I've been calibrated. 

If you are going to shop, shop smart.  Know the product you are buying and the quality (we all know buying one quality item up front can end up being less expensive in the long run than buying many poor quality pieces of the same item - think toilet paper and certain young womens retailers in the mall).  Know whether or not you like it and will enjoy and/or get good use out of it and if you decide to buy it, just buy it.  Buy it for a price that is fair to everyone.  It's more about what you get than what you get it for (within reason, of course)!