“Growing up in Toronto in the 1960s,” a reader wrote not long ago, “I enjoyed shopping family-run businesses. I would forego the better-known chains and save my money for just one pair of exquisitely handcrafted all-leather Italian shoes. I would cherish them, care for them and enjoy them every time I wore them. And they lasted for years. In fact, I wish I had kept them. I would have still worn them today.”
This was one of a flood of responses to my recent column on the demise of quality. Despite the challenges of the current economic climate, there are clearly many out there who wonder whether our tendency to “save” by gorging on ever more and cheaper goods might actually be part of the problem.
There is also much nostalgia for the days when more attention was paid to the production of quality merchandise rather than to marketing their prestige. If we are indeed what we buy, perhaps this recession has provided us with an opportunity to reflect on what we have wrought. In the minds of some, this shift might be the first step toward a significant consumer “reformation.”
Many readers were firm in their convictions. “In my family,” one wrote, “we all grew up with the old adage that ‘I am not rich enough to buy cheap.'” And many were aware of the link between their own shopping habits and the greater good. We should support our “neighbourhood merchants, farmers and tradespeople,” advised one. “There are many things that are worth the price.”
Some took the opportunity to express their revulsion at the sheer glut of subprime merchandise out there. “I live in a small condo,” another reader wrote. “And not to seem ungrateful, but the amount of dollar-store tat that I get as hostess gifts is appalling! Once a month or so, I take a laundry basket FULL of this stuff to the Goodwill (or the garbage as appropriate).”
Others placed the blame squarely on fashion. “I agree that we buy too much junk,” one woman noted. “That is due to the fashion industry changing everything quite drastically every season; people can't catch up unless they buy cheap. The fear is, if you spend a lot on a really good item, will it still be relevant next season?” The same reader said that her mother invested in a quality wardrobe that she wore year after year, observing that it was easier to do when styles changed less often.
While many readers expressed desire to invest in quality, there is confusion over how to do it. As one working mother wrote, “I am ready to abandon fast fashion for many reasons. However, I am not sure I know where to find high-quality garments, or whether I would know them if I found them.”
Significantly adding to the confusion is the fact that brand name and price tag no longer offer any guarantee.
“Why did the Burberry coat that I fell in love with last spring cost $950 when it consisted of no more than two yards of synthetic fabric and was manufactured in an Eastern European country?” one fashionable reader lamented. “I suspect that the factory workers who made this coat were not paid the wages that their British counterparts would have been paid. So why still the rich price tag? When I took my coat to my neighbourhood cleaner, he commented on the decline in quality of these coats over the years. Funny, though, the prices haven't. I have two handbags by well known designers that were more than $500 each. The straps have broken on both.”
