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Cost of Living – Apparel Crisis
By admins | November 20, 2009
Recently, a friend received a “Remember When” booklet on her birthday. For those that don’t know, they are fun little pamphlets from the year you were born. They’re filled with news, photos, advertisements and other hilarious events form your particular birth year. Well, this one contained a rather amusing, yet slightly depressing, cost of living chart as pictured above. As you can see, a new house was almost 50k in 1977, while today a new home averages 280K, big difference there. Gasoline, which as we all know, has thankfully come down a bit, was $0.65 per/gal back then vs. around $2.68 per/gal today. Food is huge shocker, the cost has unbelievably sky rocketed for groceries, especially in the last few years. Eggs are now six times more expensive then in 1977 and that’s not counting organic pricing. Insanely, bread had gone up to $2.79 per/loaf a whopping 800% increase!
One thing we noticed missing from this chart was, apparel. Where are the clothing prices? Now you would think, with the cost of living rising across the board, including average income, apparel would increase too. Right? Well further into this booklet we found this little gem, a 1977 ad for K-Mart bathing suits, check it out…
Classic photo right? And the price $8.96, not bad right? We were curious though, with mass marketers vying for the lowest price-points, and consumers wanting more for less from retailers, how does a 1977 K-Mart bikini compare to today’s prices? Take a look at the below screen-shot, taken this week from K-Mart’s website.
Well, these images pretty much say it all don’t they? Thirty two years later and prices have not just failed to rise but have actually decreased! The apparel industry is hemorrhaging jobs, suffering bankruptcies left and right, retailers are struggling to stay in the black, and this is a large part of the reason why. Everything else in the world has gone up in price except clothing, it is amazing apparel companies can even stay in business. We thought Walmart’s agenda to, “Make shirts cost less then a loaf of bread” was upsetting, but these pictures really bring the point home.
Here is more related scoop;
Topics: History, economy, wal-mart | 3 Comments » 
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November 20th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Good piece, the pic really show how f*cked up this industry is. My last company had such small margins I have no clue how they made payroll, let alone paid for their huge nyc showroom.
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Whoa – this is a great post. Retail prices have dropped significantly, but a cocktail in NYC averages $14 despite the recession & current unemployment stats.
Insane!
XOXO
Amy
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Was ‘77 really that long ago? Wow, what price changes (yet the bikinis look oddly similar). Great post, really illustrates the flaws in the fashion industry. It is so hard to eek out a living in this business as an owner or employee.