Will Tariffs Break America’s Addiction to Cheap Stuff?
It was always a treat when my family visited my grandfather in Virginia. Aunt Elnora and Uncle Johnnie lived on the farm with my grandfather, but she worked at the nearby dress factory.
Imagine the joy my sister and I felt when we each got two brand new dresses on those visits.
In the last few weeks, I’ve read articles about how Americans have become addicted to buying cheap clothing. The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed an 80+-year-old woman who, as a girl, babysat for 50 hours to afford a $25 dream dress she saw in a dime-store window. She wore that dress until it almost disintegrated.
Now we buy the latest outfits each season and, on average, wear them 7 times or fewer before throwing them away or donating them to charity.
As American consumption has soared, we have shifted from being primarily makers of stuff to its buyers. The President has said American children should be content with two dolls instead of 30. (I’ve written about the dozens of dolls my two granddaughters own.) The country’s shopping habits have been built over decades of mass imports from Asia.
I was in a third-world country (not Asia) when I saw trucks loaded with discarded clothing. I learned that the textile industry thrives in that and other countries by sorting, cleaning, and reselling clothes to local secondhand clothing markets and even trendy boutiques.
With companies like Temu, Shein, and Below 5, it is no wonder that we’ve become addicted to shopping. A pair of pants on those sites can cost less than a hamburger and fries. Now, I haven’t given in to the temptation of buying from them, but Marshall’s and Nordstrom Rack are okay by me.
Will the tariffs help us overcome our addiction to cheap goods? Some women are now renting outfits for special occasions rather than buying them—quality and savings in a growing 2.6-billion-dollar industry.
BTW, the factory near the farm is long gone.
