Terrible buying habits in the USA

[THEFAN]

A comment back to an earlier post. I have no problem buying "made in China" at a thrift store since I'm not kicking any money overseas. All of the thrift stores I shop at are community charities anyway.

I couldn't agree more with this comment. I feel the same way when buying 2nd hand.

 

[i_am2bz]

My DH is one that has to buy anything that he thinks he needs. And then he complains about the amount of junk in the house. His lastest thing? He's talking about a big screen TV. I don't want one, and don't really see the need, especially when the money would be better spent paying off bills.

DD - sounds like my DH & yours are brothers! He drives me nuts, always has to have the latest gadget (& is always broke because of it)..."But you already have a watchacallit!" "I know, but this one is better, it has (fill in the blank)" The guy has THREE cell phones, for pete's sake!

He wants a flat-screen TV; I refuse, since the current one (bought used) works perfectly fine...

 

[patandchickens]

Totally agree about the merits of buying secondhand (even if it's originally Made in China)...

...and another biggie for me is that for many kinds of goods I actually find it EASIER to get GOOD QUALITY from thrift stores than from normal stores. Obviously there *is* a lot of cheap broken garbage at thrift stores, I mean, but you just ignore it and IME pretty reliably you come across items that were manufactured SOLIDLY quite some decades ago or by a good manufacturer, that I wouldn't even know where to look for "new".

I kinda suspect that part of it may be that the people who buy good stuff in the first place (and keep good older stuff) are exactly the kind of people who are more apt to donate stuff to thrift stores than to chuck stuff out with the garbage.

The trick of course is not to be in a hurry ("I need to buy <this type of item" *today*) and to be able to TELL the poor quality from the good.

Almost all of my best buys from thrift stores have been things that I was totally not looking for specifically that day but was amazed to see appear before me because I'd always wanted one but never expected to find half that quality for five times the price

(Disclaimer, I have no idea whether this is true in areas besides where I've lived... and actually when I lived in NJ the thrift stores pretty much sucked)

Pat

 

[bibliophile birds]

there is one Goodwill that i always make it a point to hit up. it's near the really rich neighborhoods in Knoxville and all the wealthy people send their stuff there. so you can usually find good quality stuff that's been well cared for for a few dollars. i've gotten some really great serving dishes there for $3-$5.

 

[tortoise]

The trick of course is not to be in a hurry ("I need to buy <this type of item" *today*) and to be able to TELL the poor quality from the good.

Agreed! I shop out a year ahead for clothes for my son and seasonal clothes for myself. That way I have the luxury of picking only the best namebrands and waiting for the 50% off days.

 

[Up-the-Creek]

Reducing your spending over all on just "wants" is one of the biggest issues. Learn to do with what you have, and if it is something you have to invest in,..invest into a product that will last and prefferably American made. If you have a good item and it does break,..fix it. Like my car for instance,..I drive a 96 subaru, high mileage,..blah. blah. BUT a very good dependable car. The transmission has been acting up, so today I spent some money at our local mom n' pop junk yard and purchased a used transmission. My DH will put it in and I will get more use out of the car. Also we are building a barn. Instead of buying all new building materials, we are tearing down an old barn to use the lumber from it. There is all kinds of things we all can do to reduce spending and buying unAmerican. Although I must say,..I was awful upset to see my Carhartt jeans were made in Mexico. , but I purchased them at our local thrift store, so it's all good.

 

[Denim Deb]

(Disclaimer, I have no idea whether this is true in areas besides where I've lived... and actually when I lived in NJ the thrift stores pretty much sucked)

Pat

Where in Jersey did you live? I've never really found any good deals in any of the thrift stores around here. It seems like they either have junk, or want as much as in the retail stores.

 

[patandchickens]

In the New Brunswick area (worked in Piscataway, lived in South River).

There are many parts of NJ that I like... that ain't one of 'em though


Pat

 

[Denim Deb]

In the New Brunswick area (worked in Piscataway, lived in South River).

There are many parts of NJ that I like... that ain't one of 'em though


Pat

Ugh, I don't like that part of NJ either. Too many people, not enough land.

 

[Boogity]

Hey everyone - here's an update on the merchandise coming through amazon.com.

Last night we had about 20 large cases of jewlery come through that was marked "Made in Canada". Everyone in my immediate area cheered when these boxes arrived.

Regretfully this was only 20 boxes from Canada out of hundreds of thousands of boxes from China.