I didn’t know I was part of a trend. I’ve just wanted to have less stuff, and for what I have to be high quality so it lasts. Got that from my parents. I’ve wanted to trade things for art. Going to Nepal reinforced that somehow.
So I was looking through my latest college alumni magazine and found a link to classmates with blogs. Following one led me here and to this Patagonia Black Friday ad (link at bottom of this post). OK so it’s a little self serving since Patagonia makes great stuff but the message is catching on. People are buying quality used clothes for themselves on Ebay. Awesome. I can afford to buy new, but I don’t always like to. I don’t like buying new books when I can find great used ones online for a dollar. The shipping usually costs more than the book. Why not extend the idea. My own favorite clothing is used.
I don’t know what this means for the economy. There’s probably a view that we will sink into more recession if stupid shoppers ever give up going deep into credit card debt buying more cheap crap that they don’t need (and breaks anyway). Somehow I think it will be a very long time, if ever, before this gets into the broader American mindset and has any noticeable effect. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great thing to do and there is a growing opportunity so that’s a good thing. And it’s good to have company.