Monday, October 27, 2008

Shopping for Quality not Price

There was this store (to be nameless) where I use to buy my jeans. I would go in, buy a $30 pair of jeans and wear them for one year. Almost to the day one year later, those jeans would become torn, ragged and shredded in the knees. Now I'm not saying I would throw them out, wearing torn jeans, especially ones that happened, instead of bought are great. But I would still have to buy another pair of non-holed jeans. So off I would go to the same store and buy another pair of $30 jeans.

I did this three years in a row and then I realized, I spent a combined total of $90 on jeans with a combined shelf life of 3 years. I decided to suck it up and spend $90 on one pair of jeans. That was 5 years ago. I'm wearing those $90 jeans as I type this and they are perfect. Worn a bit to make them relaxed but no holes no tears.... perfect. At this rate, they will last 5 more years.

Lets do the math:
One $90 jeans for five years is $18 a year. (not counting the fact that I am wearing them longer than 5 years.
Three $30 jeans for three years is $30 a year.

I came out ahead with the more expensive pair of jeans AND they fit better, they look better and they are more stylish. So am I telling you to go spend over $100 on a pair of high quality jeans? Well if they are stylish WITHOUT being trendy they will last more than a season before going out of style and, most importantly, you look great in them; definitely!

You need to start looking at a cost per wear factor not a cost per item. Obviously I'm not telling you to spend $150 on a pair of sequined purple velvet jeans that you are going to wear to for one night and never wear them again because they are so last year. But for a classic pair of denim suck it up spend the money on quality and enjoy them knowing in the end you are coming out ahead.

Are you kidding? You actually look like you have money when people see that designer label across your bottom. And less waste so feel good that you are helping lessen the load on landfills with the holier than thou cheap jeans

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