Americans are spending less on clothing • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#161

Post by bballer » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:39 PM UTC

lg wrote: post #101

bballer wrote: post #58

With the exception of shoes and jackets I buy all my clothes at Goodwill. It's awesome! Every couple of months I spend around $20 dollars and I always have nice new tee shirts, button ups, pants etc. You wont believe how many nice clothes people simply give away. Plus it makes me feel great knowing I'm contributing to reuse and giving money to a company that helps employee less fortunate people.

you're lucky it fits you. the only sizes i see at thrift stores are L-XXL

Yeah it is lucky. I have a odd body type, I'm 6'3" but only weight 170 pounds, so I really wear a XL-Tall but a lot of the XL clothing works pretty well. It's also a hit or miss every time I go in. Sometimes I will find 10 things that fit and are great, other times I leave empty handed.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#162

Post by cr1895 » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:41 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #89

mieseratte wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> i’d rather buy a small number of high quality See, something I've noticed too is that "high price / high quality" brands seem to not be so anymore. Recently I bought a handful of Carhartt pants, pricey-but-quality, or so it used to be yet the quality seems to have been driven downhill and all those pants quickly fell apart in various ways. I've found the $20-$30 lesser-known brands ended up being of higher quality,…

All blue jeans for instance are made in the same factory in Korea. All of them.

Except for, you know, all of them that are made in the US, Japan, Italy, etc.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#163

Post by bballer » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:41 PM UTC

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #114

bballer wrote: post #58

With the exception of shoes and jackets I buy all my clothes at Goodwill. It's awesome! Every couple of months I spend around $20 dollars and I always have nice new tee shirts, button ups, pants etc. You wont believe how many nice clothes people simply give away. Plus it makes me feel great knowing I'm contributing to reuse and giving money to a company that helps employee less fortunate people.

I wish I could build a wardrobe using thrift stores, but I live in a smaller town and thrift stores rarely have anything worth wearing.

Yeah I live in a pretty big city and I live in a part of the town that is sandwiched between two very wealthy areas so it can make for very good thrift store shopping. It is still a very hit or miss thing though. Sometimes you find tons of stuff, other times you find nothing.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#164

Post by freejulian » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:43 PM UTC

randcraw wrote: post #88

IMHO there are three clear causes for this trend: 1) US business fashion is increasingly casual. Ties, skirts, suits, coordinated outfits, scarves, leather soled shoes -- all are passe, even in button down East Coast Fortune 100 companies (other than for aspiring managers or those in banking/finance). 2) Color is passe. Shades of black and grey dominate wardrobes, especially in large cities. Thus fewer accessories ar…

All these explanations are rather complicated. I think the simplest explanation is the best: people don't have the free money to spend on clothing.

This is evidenced by the following facts: 1) Wages have been stagnant 2) Cost of living has been increasing well beyond the stated 2% rate of inflation.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#165

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:45 PM UTC

jimmies wrote: post #59

jon-wood wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've got cause and effect the wrong way round. People who enjoy hobbies are going to be drawn to Pintrest, people into finance read /r/fi, and people who are into tech read Hacker News.

It was a lame and absurd joke,... but what I meant is that the dominant one that people without any particular interest flock in. Now, it's Facebook. In the past, it was the taboo magazines in Walmart checkout lines and at gas stations, so that's why it used to be clothing. If Facebook didn't make it, I think we wouldn't have seen the shift mentioned. The average person thinks what's popular is what makes them likabl…

[deleted]

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#166

Post by tehlike » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:45 PM UTC

freejulian wrote: post #164

randcraw wrote: post #88

IMHO there are three clear causes for this trend: 1) US business fashion is increasingly casual. Ties, skirts, suits, coordinated outfits, scarves, leather soled shoes -- all are passe, even in button down East Coast Fortune 100 companies (other than for aspiring managers or those in banking/finance). 2) Color is passe. Shades of black and grey dominate wardrobes, especially in large cities. Thus fewer accessories ar…

All these explanations are rather complicated. I think the simplest explanation is the best: people don't have the free money to spend on clothing. This is evidenced by the following facts: 1) Wages have been stagnant 2) Cost of living has been increasing well beyond the stated 2% rate of inflation.

People don't have the time to spend on clothing.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#167

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:49 PM UTC

rossdavidh wrote: post #102

Hypothesis I'm considering, don't know if I believe it yet: a lot of clothes were once bought at the mall, not so much because they were wanted, but because you were at the mall and it seemed like the thing to do. Now people are at the mall less, and only buy clothes when they actually need them, so fewer clothes get bought that sit in closets unused.

[deleted]

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#168

Post by ams6110 » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:50 PM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #95

randcraw wrote: post #88

IMHO there are three clear causes for this trend: 1) US business fashion is increasingly casual. Ties, skirts, suits, coordinated outfits, scarves, leather soled shoes -- all are passe, even in button down East Coast Fortune 100 companies (other than for aspiring managers or those in banking/finance). 2) Color is passe. Shades of black and grey dominate wardrobes, especially in large cities. Thus fewer accessories ar…

Sweat Pants should be trending up then!

Unfortunately this goes a little too far in my book. Sweatpants/fleece pants/pajamas are not suitable office attire, even in casual offices. It just makes you look like a slob, and in many cases certain anatomical details are too visible.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#169

Post by lotsofpulp » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:52 PM UTC

freejulian wrote: post #164

randcraw wrote: post #88

IMHO there are three clear causes for this trend: 1) US business fashion is increasingly casual. Ties, skirts, suits, coordinated outfits, scarves, leather soled shoes -- all are passe, even in button down East Coast Fortune 100 companies (other than for aspiring managers or those in banking/finance). 2) Color is passe. Shades of black and grey dominate wardrobes, especially in large cities. Thus fewer accessories ar…

All these explanations are rather complicated. I think the simplest explanation is the best: people don't have the free money to spend on clothing. This is evidenced by the following facts: 1) Wages have been stagnant 2) Cost of living has been increasing well beyond the stated 2% rate of inflation.

Agree, I think the income and wealth gap are bigger contributors to many of the shifts in consumer habits. Some is due to experiences and stuff you can take pictures of being in vogue, but given the opportunity, people will choose to show status. They just can't afford to since they have less now.

I wish there were stats showing different segments of the market, but in a simple observation, look at the declining results of mid market retailers (even online). You have luxury doing okay, like Nordstroms, but nothing else until you get to the much lower priced brands.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#170

Post by psadri » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 3:52 PM UTC

Another possible cause could be drop in average price of clothing. Fast fashion chains like h&m, uniqlo, Zara, etc have high quality, very affordable clothing. So people are buying same or more clothing but for smaller absolute $ amount.