quote:I do make a value judgment when someone who is quite well-off raves about saving fifty cents on a five-dollar item at Wal-Mart because they spent an afternoon driving around bargain-hunting.
What about five dollars on ten five-dollar items? Every week?
I recently bought two pairs of exercise pants - one at Target, and one at Wal-Mart. The same general pants were $20 at Target and $11 at Wal-Mart. It's possible the Target ones were better made, but I'm not sure and considering they are exercise pants, don't really care.
How much of a price difference is enough to make it worth it to you?
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Hey Katie, just 'cause I'm curious, will you try to wear them the same amount and wash them the same number of times and see which hold up longer? I'm not saying be fanatical about it, but if you happen to notice the stiching coming undone on one pair first, or if one of them rips, let us know. Obviously the Target ones would have to last almost twice as long as the Wal-Mart ones to justify the price difference, which I don't imagine will happen. . . but I bought a pair of jeans at Wal-Mart once when I was in a town with no other shopping options and I had come for a party with an incredibly wrong expectation of the appropriate level of dress. The jeans fit great, and I loved them, much to my chagrin. They also dissolved before the end of the summer, and I'm curious if it was a typical experience or not.
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Sure, but this will probably be a longitudanal study. I bought to replace my last two pairs of exercise pants, which have just worn out after three years. Granted, I didn't wear them every day for those three years, but still. I'll try to keep track.
Added:
I have noticed about the things I pay money for. For clothes, some things are worth extra, and some aren't. I tend to buy work pants at relatively (for me) expensive places like Banana Republic because I wear them almost every day and need them to last. I buy jeans at Wal-Mart and Target because I own several pairs and only wear them a couple of times a week. Basic, solid color work clothes I'll pay more for, but anything with a pattern I won't because I'll get tired of it before it wears out. Same for accessories - I tend to buy them cheap, because I change them out. The exceptions are the brown and black belts, because I only one or two of each color and wear them all the time.
I just looked down at what I'm wearing, and it breaks down to the following:
Shirt: Wal-Mart This one, in white. I love it. I'm thinking about getting more, except I don't really like the other colors - it fits perfectly, looks nice, and is very, very comfy.
Bra: Victoria Secret. The expensive bras are worth it - I wear them every day.
Pants: The Limited, basic gray
Belt: Target, silver chain with bright green ribbon. Very flashy and memorable, so I rarely wear it.
Shoes: Mervyns. I love Mervyns shoes - cute, last forever, and cheap.
Basically, the things I wear every day are worth paying more for. For the things I don't wear very often, I'm glad there is a place to get them cheaply. The alternate option is not to buy them at more expensive places, but to not get them at all.
The point of this is that buying decisions are often complicated, and it's nice to have options.
quote:Originally posted by katharina: How much of a price difference is enough to make it worth it to you?
To make it worth it to me to buy the item(s) at Wal-Mart, the price difference would have to be nothing short of incredible for an item of the same quality and durability. Wal-Mart's margins are thin, but not that thin. I don't believe that such an item exists.
...but then, as I've said, I have multiple reasons for not shopping there.
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Okay. *thinks* How much price difference is enough that you stop judging people negatively for shopping there?
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I haven't said that I do in the general case, only in the specific case of a hypothetical middle-or-upper class spendthrift who gloats about his or her "bargain-hunted" savings.
Added: To be clear, I don't make this judgment in the general case.
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Accepting that premise, how much of a savings is enough that the theoretical middle or upper class budgeter can be glad of it without being less of a person in your eyes?
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This is about more than short term savings, kat. We don’t shop at Wal-Mart so someday our kids won’t have to. Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote:Originally posted by katharina: Accepting that premise, how much of a savings is enough that the theoretical middle or upper class budgeter can be glad of it without being less of a person in your eyes?
It would have to be a fairly significant savings to counter the investment of time required to hunt the bargains.
In other words, I'm saying that beyond a fairly low threshold, I don't see bargain-hunting as a worthwhile investment of time if you don't need the money.
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I'm a little confused by the bargain-hunting part. What if the Wal-Mart is just down the street? The Wal-Mart I'm thinking of is the closest store to a fairly large middle/upper class neighborhood. For the people who shop there, it is convenient, cheap, and comprehensible, meaning only one trip. Not only is it cheaper, it is easier and faster to shop there. Does that change things?
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I don't shop at Walmart so that someday my kids don't have to work there.
I see their prices as irrelevant... they could be giving away their products for free, and I'd still have the same problems with their business and its effect on our society.
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Yes, of course it does, kat. That makes it okay. I'm basically down on bargain-hunting as a hobby.
Added: To clarify, if I lived in that neighbourhood, I wouldn't shop at the Wal-Mart, but I wouldn't look down my nose at people who did.
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But bargain-hunting as a hobby is fun! I do it all the time. I never pay full price for clothing, accessories, bubble bath, anything but food, really. Basically, any frivolities. In fact, I would consider bargain shopping for frivolities a hobby. (I don't, however, consider 50 cents off a jug of laundry detergent a "bargain.")
kat: Do you still have Mervyns where you live??? All of ours closed, and I love their shoes. My favorite pair of shoes came from there, and I've never been able to find anything like them again, and I wore them into the ground.
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I never said it was wrong, I simply said that I don't think much of it. Also,
quote:...50 cents off a jug of laundry detergent...
This is what I was talking about. But in the general case, my shopping technique is basically as follows:
1) Go to store 2) Look for desired item 3) If store has desired item, purchase it 4) Else return to step 1 with a new store
If I hit two or three stores and don't get what I want, I give up and go home. But I invariably buy the first one that I find because the value I place on my time outweighs any potential savings unless it's a big-ticket item (in which case I do research before going anywhere).
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quote:But I invariably buy the first one that I find because the value I place on my time outweighs any potential savings unless it's a big-ticket item (in which case I do research before going anywhere).
My dad does that. It made him an absolute joy to shop with, back when he would buy me stuff. Once he's promised to go, he wants so badly to get out of there that he'd buy anything I loved without questioning the price.
ElJay: I have a pair of strappy low black heels from Mervyn's that I've worn steadily for four years now, and I still occasionally get compliments on them.
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*grin* Whereas I use certain types of shopping as a form of relaxation, particularly when I'm stressed. But yeah, if I'm out of tissues, I go to the closest store and buy tissues. It's not worth my time to comparison shop for that sort of item, and I, also, am lucky enough to be in a financial position where I don't need to.
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quote:Whereas I use certain types of shopping as a form of relaxation, particularly when I'm stressed.
I do this as well, but it's more the buying than the shopping. I don't mind browsing in the video games store, but I generally only go there when I intend to buy something. Now, sometimes I pick up a few other somethings, y'know, while I'm there...
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Maybe I'll check for a website when I get home and see if I can find a similar shoe. I know they won't have the same one anymore, but they might have something close.
Also, my Dad and I used to go Christmas shopping together. We'd pick out my present from him and his present from me. He'd pay for them both, and we'd go home and I'd wrap them both, and put them under the tree. He was of the opinion you should get what you want for Christmas, and the best way to do that is to pick it out yourself. Mom thought it was awful. Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't shop at Walmart so that someday my kids don't have to work there.
I see their prices as irrelevant... they could be giving away their products for free, and I'd still have the same problems with their business and its effect on our society. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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I buy all my pants from Wal-Mart. Slacks and Jeans.
I'm sorry, but there's are the only pants that fit my body type, and believe me, I've looked elsewhere.
(It's also easy. I know precisely what size of Wranglers to buy, and precisely how they will fit. Or I could spend an entire day at the mall.)
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quote:I'm basically down on bargain-hunting as a hobby.
My mother is well off enough that she does not have to bargain hunt. Yet every Saturday morning, she is out a garage sales at the crack of dawn. She buys useless irrelevant junk for herself and our entire family and has a blast doing it. My father will drive halfway across the city to top off his tank at a station whose gas is 3 cents cheaper. They will also on occasion shop at a Walmart. So I guess they are those kind of people you take issue with.
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Well, I wouldn't take issue with the garage saling. You don't tend to think your neighbors are running a sweat shop.( although, if you ask my kids.....) In fact, yard sales are one reason I manage to avoid WalMart.
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quote:Originally posted by Zeugma: I don't shop at Walmart so that someday my kids don't have to work there.
I see their prices as irrelevant... they could be giving away their products for free, and I'd still have the same problems with their business and its effect on our society.
I concur. I tend to think of buying things as voting with my dollars. I strongly disaprove of Walmart, so I try to vote for them as little as possible.
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quote:I'm basically down on bargain-hunting as a hobby.
My mother is well off enough that she does not have to bargain hunt. Yet every Saturday morning, she is out a garage sales at the crack of dawn. She buys useless irrelevant junk for herself and our entire family and has a blast doing it. My father will drive halfway across the city to top off his tank at a station whose gas is 3 cents cheaper. They will also on occasion shop at a Walmart. So I guess they are those kind of people you take issue with.
Garage sales are different, though, because that isn't comparison shopping. You aren't likely to find the same item at two garage sales. The gas station example is good, though.
Also, "take issue" isn't quite right. I make a value judgment. There are plenty of people -- my mum, for instance -- who make a value judgment about how much time I spend playing video games. Everybody makes these judgments about different things.
Added: In other words, you won't catch me lecturing your parents on the wickedness of their ways.
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Voting with dollars is part of what I have a problem with. Instead of writing congressmen or lobbying for better conditions or working to imporove things otherwise, you just enrich Target instead of Wal-Mart. I don't think it's doing nearly as much as you think it is. $500 at Target instead of Wal-Mart will accomplish expotentially less than a single letter to a congressman.
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Obviously the Target ones would have to last almost twice as long as the Wal-Mart ones to justify the price difference, which I don't imagine will happen. . . but I bought a pair of jeans at Wal-Mart once when I was in a town with no other shopping options and I had come for a party with an incredibly wrong expectation of the appropriate level of dress. The jeans fit great, and I loved them, much to my chagrin. They also dissolved before the end of the summer, and I'm curious if it was a typical experience or not.
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