“People are sick of not shopping.”

Apparently, the recovery is all about prints. They're audacious, they're exotic, they're vibrant; they're everything a depressed economy needs.

Beth Buccini, the owner of a SoHo boutique, credits prints for a 12% increase in store sales in the last three months over the same period a year ago.

She, and others, think the particularly stark hunger for color and pattern this season has everything to do with frugal fatigue, and the pent-up demand of a recession hangover.

“People are sick of not shopping," she is quoted as saying in a recent New York Times article. "After such a miserable winter, and an even more miserable economy, people want a little joy in their lives.”

Well, there's only one place joy comes from, and it is from European designers with hard-to-pronounce names. The prints at Barneys New York will "make you feel alive,” says the store’s fashion director. Never mind if you have to die of starvation in order to afford them.

Over the past two years, workers across the country have become all too acquainted with the concept of "settling." But, surprisingly enough, many employers have been less than thrilled to have PhD candidates applying to management positions and former CFOs managing small nonprofits. 

It turns out, there's some science behind this overqualification-phobia. As the Times put it this weekend,

"conventional wisdom warns against hiring overqualified candidates [because they] often find themselves chafing at their new roles."

Fair enough. But it seems that, for some, "settling" has been working out just fine. The New York Times profiled several employees who have taken pay- and responsibility-cuts in the recession. Yet instead of "chafing" these workers are excelling in their new roles, going above and beyond the call of duty, and becoming huge assets to their respective employers.

Of course, it may be that they're not chafing because they've been frightened into silence by the prospect of bankruptcy. They may be excelling because they are terrified that their current employer will suffer a setback and lay them off. They may be going above and beyond because, well, you get the point.

Congratulations, capitalism, you've won again. Workers of the world, don't unite; just settle.

Heroes of the Recession IV: Bizarrely Specialized Small Kitchen Appliances

A bad economy may keep diners in their own kitchens, but it can't make em cook.
The New York Times reported last week that

"in the $3.8 billion category called small kitchen electrics, sales were up almost 9 percent from 2008 to 2009...meanwhile, sales of housewares — that includes knives, pots and pans — were down 11.5 percent."

In case you missed that, I'll repeat - THREE POINT EIGHT BILLION DOLLAR industry.

So of course this month's Heroes of the Recession are the people who spend - what was it again? - oh yeah, 3.8 BILLION DOLLARS - on microwaves with a "smart cookie" button and toasters with bumps for pizza or the ability to poach eggs as they brown bread.


Aaaand....check out this transparent toaster.

Young At Heart?

Travel agencies have begun to extend their covetable student discounts to the general consumer population, according to a recent New York Times article.

Some, like StudentUniverse, keep their equal-opportunity deals on the DL, lest they scare off spring breakers horrified by the idea of traveling alongside the wrinkled. Student City is another of these "student" travel agency that aren't - it's discounts extend beyond the college crowd, although for some reason it doesn't want you to know it.

Other agencies, though, are actively recruiting nonstudents - like STA Travel, a discount agency whose new tag line is "flights for everyone."

Homage to the Househusband

Last week the Times' David Brooks reiterated the man problem discussed by Reihan Salam and others last year. The problem is this: men have been hit hardest during this recession because for years now they have acquired less education, training, and skills than their female counterparts, and have focused on industries with declining employment opportunities.

Brooks noted that we are about to reach a historical marker wherein, for the first time in history, there will be more women in the work force than men.

Enter the case for the househusband. In a weekly "Conversation," Collins and Brooks discuss and debate the issues of the week. Last week, Collins held that men (especially of the unemployed persuasion) should woman up and spend some time at home with the kids. Brooks argued that evolutionary psychology dictates that women are "just more nurturing."

This article in New Statesman took a look at the rise of the househusband back in December. Although it is a British publication and reflects a culture across-the-seas, the article asks questions that are present in the U.S. cultural consciousness as well - just with cuter spelling and vocab: for instance, "does she who earns the pay cheque call the shots? Should he who changes nappies get custody of the children after a divorce?" Will fathers who have enjoyed raising the kiddies be reluctant to return full-time to work? And working moms to diaper duty?

The reorganization of family responsibilities that has arisen from the economic slump may certainly become a lasting trend. To be certain, the househusband, at least to some extent, is here to stay!

Come On Get Happy

...because sad people spend more money. That's according to a recent article on the website Financial Highway that suggests good money management is a task more psychological than mathematical. The author cites the study “Misery is not Miserly: Sad and Self-Focused Individuals Spend More”, which found that "sad and self-focused individuals spend as much as 300% more for the same type of commodity."

The study seems to apply to situational sadness more than the generalized variety;when it was conducted, "the researchers randomly assigned people to either watch a sad video or an emotionally neutral video, after which they were asked to purchase a commodity (i.e. bottle of water). Participants in the sad group offered about 300% more than the neutral group for the same item."

So next time you go see a tearjerker, hands off the wallet as you leave the theater - or you could end up crying into a $7 bucket of popcorn.


Don't be like Dawson.