Garment District, Cambridge
Goodwill of Massachusetts
Salvation Army Thrift Stores
Savers Stores
Urban Renewals, Allston
By Elizabeth Sheeran
Your thrifty grandma may turn out to be the coolest person you know. The latest trend in this recession is to reject trendiness altogether. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from young adults who got tired of trying to keep up.
"If I can not work as hard to keep up with trends, and I don't have to feel bad about it, I think it's a great thing," said Joe Molimock, 20.
"I've always been pretty conservative so it's actually been nice for me because now people are all clipping coupons and talking about the good deals at Best Buy, instead of it all being about keeping up with the Joneses," said Allison DiNitto, a 23-year-old analyst at a Texas-based oil company, "so that's been kind of nice because it's kind of cool to save now and it's cool to be conservative."
You don't have to look beyond your local magazine stand to know something has changed. Earlier this year, Time ran a cover story about "The new frugality," and The Economist wrote of a "backlash against bling." Glamour magazine's back-to-fall fashion covers this year featured phrases like "Looks you can afford" and "Budget" in big bold letters, where just a year ago there was nary a mention of cost.
Pop culture has proclaimed the death of conspicuous consumption. But if the "shift to thrift" is a broad cultural phenomenon, the under-30 set is leading the way. A recent Pew Center study found they were 40 percent more likely than older adults to have cut spending on alcohol or cigarettes. And the generation known for its attachment to technology was 50 percent more likely to have cut cell phone usage.
That could have a lot to do with the fact that the tight job market has squeezed younger workers a little harder, so they have to cut costs. But plenty of young adults with steady jobs have also changed their attitudes about spending. "There isn't a lot of pressure on us to go on extravagant trips. Nobody's going out and doing crazy things," said DiNitto of the group of co-workers with which she socializes.
"There's more of push to stay in. If you want to go hang out, you're not necessarily going to go to a bar and drop $100 on liquor. You're going to go to the liquor store and pick something up and have people over," DiNitto said. "People are starting to do dinner parties and things like that...carpooling places...it's finding other ways to be entertained. We'll all get together on Mondays after the Sunday paper comes and sit around and watch TV and clip coupons. It's a little sad, but it's entertaining, and it's a free hobby," she said.
That's a trend that can only benefit young adults in the long term, because the pressure to consume has often kept them from getting on a solid footing financially, said Ken McDonnell of ChooseToSave.org, a non-partisan non-profit think tank that aims to teach Americans about personal finance.
"When you're in your twenties you're trying to prove yourself, and that usually means there's a lot of spending on clothes, fashion, gadgets....you're competing on that," said McDonnell. "If they're starting to compete now on who can be thriftiest, that's great."
Young adults haven't just accepted the idea of thrift. They publicize it. "I have a friend who used to show off her Coach bags... Now she'll tell you how she found the Coach bag at a thrift shop," said Courtney Watts, 24, who recently completed her studies in fashion design at Mount Ida College.
At the Salvation Army thrift store on Route 1 in Saugus, shoppers Chris Hanson and Katie Nilodi said they've always considered themselves "thrifters," but their generation is more open to the idea than their parents. "My mother wouldn't be caught dead in a thrift store," said Hanson, trying on a top brand-name polo shirt priced at $2.99.
Hanson said he's not sure the recession has made young adults any thriftier than they already were. "I think it's getting more noticed now. More people are talking about it. It's becoming more socially acceptable to be thrifty. It's almost a pop culture phenomenon."
"A magazine recently published a photo of a movie star wearing a Kenneth Cole dress she said she bought for $29 at a Salvation Army Store," said store manager Jenna Taylor. "It's stuff like that that's going to make people realize that there's great stuff that you can get here second hand."
Taylor, a recent college graduate who now oversees annual sales of about $1.5 million in second-hand items at the Saugus site, has worked in thrift shops since she was 15. She said business has been steady overall, but at Salvation Army locations that have more of the kind of inventory that appeals to younger adults, she's seen an increase in thrift shoppers her age. "Young guys come in and look at the t-shirts, the girls buy clothes, jewelry, and some knick-knacks, and young couples buy furniture."
For many young adults, thrift shopping isn't just about chasing low prices. It's also about a change in values. "It's about finding something that's unique, because so much in our society is mass-produced," said Hanson.
Katie Rodgers, 23, furnished her entire living room with thrift shop and yard sale finds, and through on-line community sites like Craig's List, where she found people who would willingly give her a large furniture item for free, in exchange for taking it off their hands.
"I care about recycling, I'd rather get something that someone is going to throw away, rather than something that's made new that probably won't last as long anyway because they don't make things like they used to," said Rodgers.
And it's not just in decisions about what to buy where young Americans are seeing their options in a new light. The freight train that was the U.S. economy not so long ago has slowed enough that young adults can make choices without worrying that they may never be able to get back on track.
"The recession has made it easier for me to think differently about my alternatives," said Laura Imkamp, a senior at Emerson College, "I'm seriously considering moving to China after I graduate now, because with the recession in the U.S. economy I don't feel so much anymore that this is the best place to be."
Amy Falk, a life coach who works with young adults, said the recession's changed expectations could make it easier for them to pursue goals that will make them happier in the long run, because expectations about what we should be doing are usually the biggest obstacle to doing what we really want to be doing.
"The 'shoulds' are huge," said Falk. "A lot of family and societal 'shoulds' and expectations inform what your own expectations are about yourself."
Only time will tell if the change in attitudes is really a wholesale cultural change, or just another trend of the moment.
"I don't like to buy a lot of things," said Riley Ohlson, 27, who said he prefers to save his money for longer term experiences, like education or travel. "So now I'm finally cool ... But wait a couple of years, and I'll be un-cool again."
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