Wear and tear? Don't replace, repair
If you're a Wall Streeter, you have to dress the part -- but now's not the best time to buy a new pair of $600 shoes. So more people are fixing up the good stuff they already have. Sally Herships reports.
More on Jobs, Wall Street
TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: While the economy's been sour, people haven't been doing a lot of buying -- at least of high end shoes and suits. But for those who already have those items in their closets, getting them fixed up is cheaper. And lifting the economy in some stores. From New York, here's Sally Herships.
Sally Herships: Victoria Gonzalez is a Wall Streeter with a job. She's an entertainment lawyer. But like so many others in the financial district, she's cutting back.
Victoria Gonzalez: I used to go and have my nails manicured each week. Now, I just do everything myself. Nobody's noticed it. Nobody has! No one has commented. Haha.
Gonzalez is at Minas shoe repair fixing up some old black pumps. Minas Polychronaki says despite the dark clouds lurking above, his Wall Street shop is busy. Business is up 30 percent over last year.
Herships: Do customers tell you that they're getting their shoes fixed because they can't afford to buy new ones?
Minas Polychronaki: They don't have to tell me, they bring me -- Prada, Manolo, Jimmy Choo.
Herships: Well there are some Jimmy Choos right, there right? And how much would this kind of shoe normally cost?
Polychronaki: This, about $600.
Herships: Really? But that's just a plain beige pump.
Dressing like Mr. Big can cost big. So financial fat-cats have begun bargain shopping in their own closets. And it's not just their shoe racks they reach for.
Harry Bhambi: You're looking at about $1,200 a yard. And the average person would take about three and a half yards to make a suit.
Harry Bhambi is a tailor in midtown Manhattan. And if you do the math, a suit, handmade from the cashmere-wool mix he showed me, would cost over four grand.
Bhambi: Yeah, it's a lot of cloth. And it's a lot of money.
Now, with cutbacks and layoffs, his customers are brushing off their old pinstripes instead. Custom orders are down by 30 percent. But alterations are up -- by 20 [percent]. Enough to keep the tailors working hard.
Back on Wall Street, I ask Minas Polychronaki if the bad economy is good for him.
Polychronaki: Uh, it really is no good for me. If Wall street die, all the economy, all the world is going to die.
Polychronaki might be cashing in now, but he's hopeful the stock market will bounce back. If not, he says, there'll be a price to pay in the long run.
In New York, I'm Sally Herships, for Marketplace.
Comments
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12/01/2008
Repairing suits and shoes that were positional goods to begin with is okay if others who bought them are doing so; it's just a new positional equilibrium. But in a broader context of utilitarian goods we have in many cases passed the point at which the issue or repair or replace arises. Depending on the good, this is partly because it is so poorly made that it cannot be repaired. In lieu of not being able to judge value, price has pretty much become the overiding purchase criterion. That created a race to the bottom in terms of quality and value (Nore: Goodwill no longer repairs anything partly for this reason.). Also, for many goods it's still cheaper to buy, say, a new garden tool made in Asia than it is to repair the old one. Such is the value of cheap labor.
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