Monday, September 6, 2010

Wrong Demographic...

Went to the local warehouse store for some supplies today, and while browsing the general clothing goods, came across something that really stuck out at me. They had, in amongst the $22 Levis and $15 house brand jeans, some so-called "Diesel" brand jeans - at $79 a pair. Now, to my line of thinking, a pair of $79 jeans had better be armored (Draggin' Jeans) or some other form of bulletproof. Barring that, they had better wash and fold themselves, come with a built in GPS, and give sweet, sweet lovin' on cold winter nights.

Even then I don't think I'd drop eighty freakin' bucks on a pair of blue jeans.

The more I thought about it, the more incongruous it seemed. Here's a warehouse store devoted to saving folks money, and there's a pair of jeans that cost half as much as everything I had in my shopping cart. Now, granted, maybe those jeans sell for $150 outside of the warehouse store, but even so - the clientele that's shopping in a "club" type warehouse is looking to save money. It's doubtful they're the type to drop $80 on a pair of jeans.

Boutique clothing - or any other consumable, for that matter - isn't a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. Our past is littered with stories of the latest and greatest "in" thing that the average consumer "had to have" - from tulips to Cabbage Patch kids. It's even not limited to us wasteful Americans - Japan is famous for $150 melons and such, - although we seem to have raised spending buckets of money wastefully to an art form. I don't understand it, I just report on it.

Of course, I'm also a notoriously cheap bastard...

That is all.

9 comments:

Mike said...

That's a great price for a pair of Diesel jeans, though now that they are now sold in warehouse stores I wouldn't buy them.

Ancient Woodsman said...

You are not cheap and we're all pretty sure your parents were married.

When your brain is wired to react like you did to that overprice on jeans ($150.00 retail?) it is also so wired to be thinking, "for 150 I can get TWO pairs of Levis plus TWO of the Brownell's 5-pack of 30 rounders for the AR..." or some such economy. I know you can't buy new 30-rounders, but I'd bet your brain goes down similar tracks.

$150.00 jeans?!? $79.00 for jeans at a warehouse?!? Wow.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I heard that the Japanese have such high prices on their produce because of how much they pamper it. Apparently, the fruit is absolutely flawless, and the smaller fruit, such as peaches, even have these little netted sleeves on them to protect them from bumps and such. Awesome But Impractical.

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

I don't know... If they give sweet, sweet lovin' it might be worth the $80 just for that feature. But then, I'm a single geek. It's probably not worth it for those with families or SO's.

Sabra said...

Been in a Wal-Mart electronics section lately? Speaking of overpriced stuff you wouldn't think the typical customer would be after...

Of course, Target is even worse, because Target has pretensions. And Starbucks.

Old NFO said...

The sad part is, people WILL jump on it... Personally, I can think of a LOT of stuff I could buy for that $79 :-)

BenC said...

Really Mike? So if they were sold for $150 at some hip boutique you would buy an wear them but because they are sold for 1/2 that at a warehouse they are beneath you.
I hate that kind of elitist pretentious atttude. I would not buy them because they are overpriced jeans where they come from does not matter.

Sabra said...

So if they were sold for $150 at some hip boutique you would buy an wear them but because they are sold for 1/2 that at a warehouse they are beneath you.

The only thing that makes those jeans worth $150 is the perceived exclusivity of the brand. If that sort of thing is important to you (and I think it's ridiculous), then a warehouse store selling them at any price ruins that and does indeed make them worthless to the sort of social-climber who would place value on that sort of thing. See, once they're marketed to the socio-economic class you actually belong to, you can no longer put on airs and jeans at the same time. ;-)

Timmeehh said...

D&G washed denim jeans only $625. For the really, really insecure man with a tiny penis.

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod108090031&parentId=cat9070735&masterId=cat8940732&index=77&cmCat=cat000000cat000470cat14120827cat8940732cat9070735