At What Cost?

This blog tries to be upbeat, humorous at times, and a get away from the day to day grind.  We would also like you to think seriously once in awhile , and sometimes question why we do the things we do. How did we get where we are and sometimes, just maybe sometimes, come up with an answer.

First The Overall Economy:

I won’t go into all kinds of detail or this post will be 10 pages long. I just want to hit some talking points.

First off I live in the US, in particular the North East half of the country, New York to be specific. The economic climate here is to be blunt, shitty, very shitty. Our unemployment rate is at or above 10% and those are just the people the stats account for. You see, many people are no longer being counted as unemployed, because they have not worked in over a year. They don’t collect unemployment and therefore are considered uncountable. How nice! People have been leaving our state in droves, because of lack of jobs or future opportunity. Our state is beyond broke, we are officially bankrupt.

Speaking of the government, it’s nice to see a new president which usually means the economy will start to rebuild, rebound and by the end of the first term, start to get in better shape than when he first took office.  But, seeing how our country is no longer a manufacturing based work force, the future looks scary in the least, ripe for a revolution at best. (Interesting side note: President Obama’s suits are made mostly by Hart Schaffner Marx, a suit made in the US, at least it was, emerging out of bankruptcy in August and no longer an American company)

Pensions here at the state level are supposed to be solid, based on the current workforce which fund those who are at, or already retired. Seeing how there are less people at work and many more Baby Boomers ready to retire, I have no idea how the pensions will last for the next generation, let alone this generations final days here on earth.

Social Security, this alone can be a subject all into itself.   When Roosevelt first instituted it, I believe it was based on two or three workers for every one receiving the benefit. It is so out of whack now, I am afraid to actually find how many workers it would take to cover one person who is entitled to his or her full Social Security payments.  Once again, we will have those pesky Baby Boomers getting ready to retire. How are we to cover their benefits? (Last year we saw the first time ever, no standard of living increase for benefits).

So, no wonder people are cutting back where they can and looking for deals on everything we use in daily life. But are the deals we are making, really the best deals for our family and ourselves? In my own way, I am going to try and relate how buying a men’s suit is exactly the same as spending your hard earned, albeit fewer dollars, on larger ticketed items that we need and how much we think something that costs less is the best deal.

Mens Suit Scenario:

I personally am involved in upscale men’s apparel. Our entire region used to have literally one hundred stores where men could buy better goods. As of two years ago, we had less then ten. Right now, there are four and two of those I could not consider upscale. Of those four, two of them are in serious financial difficulty and close to locking their doors after this holiday season. I read voraciously the industry trade magazines and this is happening all over the country.

I can only speak of men’s clothing with any credible knowledge, as this is my chosen field of endeavor. But to me,  if the only men’s clothing stores left are the Men’s Warehouse and Jos A Banks ,we are truly at the end of what real quality is. How good can a suit possibly be when you buy one at $199 and get one or two free?

To me, menswear is a reflection of the economy as a whole. I call it the Walmartization of America. The huge chain comes in a small town, takes over the butcher, baker, pharmacy, small retailer, etc by offering the lowest prices. Because you and I are either afraid to spend money, or worse have barely any to spend,  we buy the less expensive. But are we? Our friends and neighbors the butcher, baker and pharmacist are no longer in business.There goes the incentive to give better service, higher quality and the best PRICE.

Now, this is most important. You see,when we settle into thinking we bought at the best price we are fooling ourselves. Here is the analogy I will use to emphasize my point.

Yes Mr Jones, you can purchase a suit for $199 and it looks good. You take it home and you wear it and after you wear it a couple of times, you notice it doesn’t quite fit you like it did when you first got it. Then you see Mr Jones, when you need to clean that suit, which you will, it doesn’t come back quite as nice as when you first bought it. When they are mass produced, that utilizes a machine and glue. I think we both know how much glue, washing and wearing can hold up. So then Mr Jones next year you will need to go out and buy another $199 suit and go through this process yet again.

Mr Jones, after 10 years of saving all that money from buying a less expensive suit, you will instead have paid much, much more than if you bought this higher quality suit.  In reality, after 10 years of wear, you would have spent $2000 for clothing that never really fit right nor looked good or wore well. In fact, Mr Jones, I could have sold you THIS suit, that was made by the best skilled tailors, using the finest cloths available in the world and will fit your body like the person you want to world to see everyday. And Mr Jones, after ten years, you can continue to enjoy this suit again and again.

You see Mr Jones, I would rather explain PRICE to you one time than apologize for the COST of quality every time I see you for the next ten or fifteen years.

So my question to you, dear reader, is this. Are we continually basing our daily buying decisions on price alone? How long can we, as a society continue, if we pay more and have less? What will we hand down to our children and our children’s children? At what cost?

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Posted by Glenn on Oct 14 2009 Filed under HEALTH, MONEY, NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry