this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
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“The average American buys more than one new piece of clothing per week. If that matches your shopping habits, in a span of five years you have purchased more than 320 pieces of clothing.”
Who the fuck is buying multiple pieces of clothing every week? I don’t know anyone that does that. I feel like buys-ridiculous-amounts-of-clothing George is an outlier and shouldn’t be counted.
Do individual socks count? If so, buying a 10 pack of socks and a 6 pack of undies gets you through half a year by this metric.
Man, I don't even do that every year. Maybe every 3-5 years. I do not buy clothes very often at all.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/26/economy/recession-underwear-alan-greenspan/index.html
This article is so entitled
It really is the entitled version of the boots theory. I wear my clothes literally hundreds of times before they get worn out and this article is suggesting that 10 wears of "cheap" ($50) clothes and it's trash time. This article is way out if touch to the average non-fashion obsessed buyer imo.
I may be a snob because the socks go in the bin, when the holes grow too big.
"too" big, sure, but not when they first appear
TIL that I’m probably entitled cause when I see a small hole, that socks goes to trash and the other one in the pair becomes orphaned.
Hey as long as you're not throwing out both if one gets a hole, I'm glad to have you on the team.
Yeah exactly, the orphan must now wait until a matching orphan joins it. Then it can be worn just a bit longer!
Yeah, just google how to darn them. Socks are super easy to fix
Big sock doesn't want you to know this pro tip!
They're talking about the average US American, not the BIFL crowd. We're a special group, and they're trying to nudge more people our direction
Judging by the amount of clothes at second hand stores in the US, its mostly middle class women
I have a shopaholic aunt who is said to wear things she buys once on avg. She could open her own 2nd hand shop (or if she moved her stock to Europe she could open ~6 2nd-hand shops). Many women in my family are inflicted with this disease to varying degrees. It’s a gender-specific disease that I think men are immune to.
Men are not immune to it, but it is less common
looks at $150 Warhammer model next time buddy, I'll grab a paint pot on my way out, and maybe a brush, hmm I need better sprue cutters...
Wow that's wasteful
It's called, "not addressing my personal issues," aka "retail therapy." It's not gender specific, it's common and manifests in multiple ways.
Well, if you average it, maybe. I tend to get clothes en masse -- I don't get one pair of socks. They do say "average".
Back of the envelope, to keepy work uniform crispy, every six months or so I need to obtain:
two work shirts
two undershirts
two pairs pants
a five-pack of boxers
a pair of shoes
That's twelve, times two to get the yearly average. I also get a six-pack of socks every other year or so, call that twenty-seven per year, plus one or two purchased for me as gifts (gloves, sweatshirts, hats, ties), call it thirty.
There's fifty-four weeks in a year. Either the author is out-of-touch or I'm already following their advice, IDK. I just found brands that are comfortable and wear them until they're discontinued. Personally, I wish I was buying clothes less often; I hate that I go through work shirts and pants so fast, in particular.
Edit: bad arithmetic originally. Revised estimate is more in line with author's projection but still significantly lower.
I think I've bought 2 pieces this year.