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Tag Archives: economy
Everything You Want To Know About The Economy In 2011
Money 101: How To Help Your Parents Through The Recession
It seems like the floundering economy has taken its toll on everyone in some way or another. Maybe you ended up in the unemployment line, or maybe your pantry’s stocked with nothing but store-brand food. And while the financial environment may have led you to cringe whenever you look at your checking account statement, our generation is lucky in that we have plenty of time to recover before we’re ready to start thinking seriously about retirement.
But what about your parents? If they haven’t retired already, they’re probably getting close, and they have much less time to recover if the economy took their finances down with it. Knowing how to help your parents can be tricky, but they may be at a point where they really need you. Keep reading »
Money 101: How To Make The Most Of Reverse Empty-Nesting
Sometimes when you hit rock bottom, there’s only one place to go – back home with Mom and Dad. As layoffs and overwhelming debt are knocking members of our generation on their asses, many are flocking home to the safety net they couldn’t wait to escape at age 18. There isn’t any shame in going home to catch your breath and regroup, but there’s a way to approach the situation so you really do get back on your feet and avoid causing more angst than the My Chemical Romance blaring from your little brother’s room.
The Frisky hit up Rick Kahler, an NAPFA-registered, fee-only financial advisor and author of four books on financial planning and money psychology, for advice on how to move home and get independent without feeling like you’re re-living the turmoil of your Jordan Catalano-crushing youth all over again. Keep reading »
Want A Smartphone With That? American Eagle To Offer Free Phones
Do you ever shop at American Eagle? (We stopped sometime after we realized we don’t belong to a fictional rugby team.) If you don’t frequent the all-American retailer, you might want to start. Come July 21, AE will be offering free smartphones to customers who “try on the company’s jeans,” says the Wall Street Journal. Whoa, was that a fact-checking error, or did we indeed read the word try, not buy? Apparently, all you have to do is wedge your butt into a pair of destroyed skinny jeans (assuming you can actually stand to do this in the ungodly summer heat), and you’ll receive directions to a sign-up website offering free cell phones (the BlackBerry Bold, the Motorola Backflip, and the HTC Aria are the choices), if you agree to a two-year contract with one of the AE listed carriers. Shoppers will also get a $25 American Eagle gift card. All of this is part of a promotion the company is hoping will put them back on track, as they haven’t been able to keep up with the economy and have fallen slightly out of step with style.
It’s an interesting proposition, but we have to wonder … does a free phone for just trying on jeans seem almost too gimmicky? [Wall Street Journal] Keep reading »
Rich People Shop At Kohl’s?
There are two types of wealthy people. Those who go on reality television to show off their private jets and bling and Caribbean estates. And then there are rich people who are also cheapskates, and won’t spend money on peculiar things, like clothes. (Come to think of it, Daddy Warbucks did wear pretty much the same outfit every day.) Or so it seems, according to surprising new research about where they shop. Check out the full infographic after the jump. Keep reading »
Sign The Economy Is On The Up? Black Is Out, Bold Is In
When the economy hit its first slump, the fashion industry became one of the many lenses through which we measured the damage. So, it’s only natural to gauge the recession’s overall improvement by monitoring positive changes in the fashion world. Today, The New York Times asserts that a resurgence of bright, bold clothing is a tell-tale sign that the economy is recovering.
Keep reading »
Chic Young Things Are Investing In Luxury Weaponry
The fashion industry might be speeding straight into an iceberg à la the Titanic, but apparently there’s one consumer market that’s beginning to thrive in this crappy economy: luxury guns. Gunmaker Purdey & Sons is responding to this by increased production on a new model, which is described as “entry level.” From a Bloomberg report on the company’s move, it kind of sounds like the people who stopped purchasing handbags are the ones now supporting the luxury weaponry industry: “Buyers today are young, fashionable and wealthy, whereas the gun buyers of the past were older gentlemen with less money to spend.”
Weird, right? Are you in the market for one of these bad boys? [Agenda Inc] Keep reading »
I’ve Lost My Passion For Shopping
I don’t know what’s happened to me. I used to love shopping. Next to having sex, drinking, and eating great food with friends, shopping used to rank pretty high on my list of activities that make me happy.
And no, I was never one of those girls who “bought to fill the void” or anything like that. As a fashion lover, the biggest draw of hitting the boutiques was a satisfaction of being able to change my style with something simple. I never dumped huge amounts of money on clothes, but I definitely had patterns. Maybe one nice designer purchase every three to four months; one to three smaller things per month like tops, accessories, and sometimes shoes from places like Urban or Forever 21. I rarely bought out of necessity.
Now that’s not the case … Keep reading »
Does Shopping Make You Feel Guilty?
The retail industry is getting pretty desperate these days—how many more special events and functions will we see that scream “Oooo! Please, please come shop in our store!” According to the Wall Street Journal, the latest tactic in trying to woo the recessionary customer is to assuage shoppers’ guilt.
In some cases, this goes straight to the point instead of tip-toeing around the you shouldn’t be spending atmosphere. Take, perhaps, the best example out there, Gilt Groupe, a sample sale website (and admitted Frisky obsession) whose name is a play on the word “guilt.” The site’s co-founder, Alexis Maybank, explains that now retailers like her are placing emphasis on battling this new culture of consumer guilt: “It used to be about keeping up with the Joneses, and now it’s about outsaving the Joneses … We need to encourage people to get excited about fashion.” Gilt’s short-timed sales have set off a wave of similar online initiatives, which rev up shoppers and distract them from negative feelings.
Does The Fashion Industry Need Government Aid To Survive?
The fashion industry has been hard hit by the recession, and it looks like it may take some strategic political partnerships to find the path of recovery. After the collaborative efforts of Fashion’s Night Out, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is helping to launch another initiative to help stimulate the fashion economy. This time, it’s a designer contest which will begin next month, reports the Post: “The mayor will stage a competition to pick 12 up-and-coming designers for a new city-sponsored fashion ‘incubator’ facility. The project is aimed at helping New York attract young talent by providing cheap design space.” [NY Post]
