Cheap & Cheerful

"People are saying, ‘We are going to save money, and we are going to save the environment,’" says Wendy Liebman of WSL Strategic Retail in a Wall Street Journal article by Jennifer Saranow (11/4/08). Todd Lavieri of Archstone Consulting adds, "Our retail and manufacturing clients are seeing almost an aversion to consumption." Todd, whose firm tracks shopping patterns, observes that while downturns in 1991 and 2001 resulted in consumers going shopping "as therapy," this time around it’s just the opposite. According to Todd, "people aren’t shopping to feel better. They actually are not shopping to feel better."

Kelli Donley is one of those people. Kelli says she’s always been environmentally friendly, "bringing her own bags to the grocery store and limiting her driving," for example. But in today’s economic climate, she’s taken that up a notch, to the point where she’s "conserving clothing" by trading trips to the mall for thrift-shop excursions. "It’s definitely all of a sudden very cool to be cheap," she says. Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing says frugal attitudes actually have been setting in for about a year now.

Pam says some shoppers have abandoned the idea that status symbols matter, while others think that "spending money on luxury is a poor use of resources" these days. Lindsay Lefevere, who used to frequent Target and Starbucks, plans to recycle "household items as wrapping paper" for the holidays. The bad economy "is definitely making me more conscious about the environment," she says. Then there’s Miranda Garcia, who did splurge on a new Lexus SUV, ostensibly because she has a baby and wanted side air bags, but she also made sure her new car was a hybrid. "We wanted to do the right thing," she explains. ~ Tim Manners, editor