You take to no shopping, the rich turn to "shame shopping"
By Jason Buckland, Sympatico / MSN Finance
If you’re, say, a laid-off worker ashamed that your neighbours saw repo men make off with the family car from your driveway, just be lucky you’re not filthy rich.
Because that’s when the real embarrassment starts.
As the recession hits and our spending habits seize tighter than Cher’s face, nobody’s talking about the wealthy shopper, who still has cash to spend but is now too shy to do so.
It’s one thing to drop five-figures on a pair of pumps during a healthy economy, but to splurge so lavishly while the rest of the world scrapes to get by? Why, you’d have to be a monster.
Yet there’s a new trend among the elite called “shame shopping,” where rich boutique-hoppers still spend big but now reject the signature bags of their high-end retailers, choosing to conceal their indulgence rather than promote it.
Yes, you’re reading this correctly. It’s apparently become standard procedure on Madison Avenue for customers to now opt for plain, logo-free bags to place their goods in so as to not rub in their spending during the Era of the Penny Pinch.
“Once upon a time, carrying a Holt (Renfrew) bag was something to be proud of – now it signals excess,” industry publicist Jocelyn Smith tells Fashion magazine. “If I’m walking around with 10 shopping bags, I feel ridiculous.”
This pattern has even crossed-over to online shopping at sites like net-a-porter.com, which specializes in posh clothing and accessories. Now, select shoppers can have their orders delivered in non-descript wrapping to keep inquiring postmen and nosy neighbours none the wiser to your spending.
“Psst … Your secret is safe with us!” it reads under the website’s packaging options page.
Here was my favourite anecdote I found on “shame shopping”: A female client, wishing to keep her spending discreet, ordered a $1,200 Gucci snakeskin bag from a catalogue.
“She said, ‘Please ship it with a gift card wishing me a happy birthday, so my husband doesn’t kill me,” the retailer said. “So I didn’t put the invoice in the box. I just put a card that said ‘Happy Birthday, I hope you love the bag!’”
Now, it’s easy to sit here and bash the rich for being rich – that’s a certified perk to not having much money – but isn’t this a bit much? Isn’t brown paper packaging reserved for the neighbourhood pervert carrying home his nudie-mag each week? Isn’t this a tad presumptuous?
While I can understand the gesture (and even appreciate it on some level), it seems misguided. Most of the people really affected by this recession – the ones at risk of losing their homes, losing their cars, losing their retirement – aren’t likely to be spotted in Yorkville or strolling through Fifth Ave. or Rodeo Dr., anyway. And if they are, chances are they haven’t even looked twice at the bags dangling at your side, a sight I’d expect is to be anticipated in such ritzy areas of town.
Do I care that you’ve spent $4,000 on a new Hermès bag? Not really. Do most other people? Probably not. Besides, a Hermès bag sounds like something my friend Shane should’ve seen a doctor about the night he went home with a girl who could best be described as “rugby player-esque.” We don’t mind that you’ve got one. Honestly.
After all, is a world where you can’t enjoy a $1,200 snakeskin purse free of guilt one you really want to live in? Let the wealthy spend, I say, free from social persecution.
Posted by: GB | Apr 3, 2021 10:30:46 AM
someone needs to be spending to rev up the economy....so if they have all this disposible income by all means, KEEP IT MOVING
Posted by: MichelleB | Apr 3, 2021 11:20:17 AM
I agree with the poster above. This is a great piece of writing.
Posted by: lynn | Apr 3, 2021 8:26:49 PM
if it's coming to the door wrapped in plain brown paper, don't we think something really expensive is in there? i think the hermes bag is a hoot when she's got to carry it out of the house someday, how did it get in there in the first place, someone paid a pretty penny for it anyway.i say if you got it flaunt it, the rest of us won't hold it against you.
Posted by: BE | Apr 3, 2021 10:03:57 PM
This is an old article but a good one! Maybe the rich are feeling the pinch, too. Does it really matter how many bags one carries? What really matters is the amount that one spends. I also think that with the many doom and gloom stories on TV even the rich see what is happening out there. If the rich have money they might as well spend it before the Government takes it!
Posted by: SP | Apr 5, 2021 8:26:20 AM
A delightful insight into the authors mindset
"Isn’t brown paper packaging reserved for the neighbourhood pervert carrying home his nudie-mag each week?"
Posted by: tl | Apr 5, 2021 10:43:12 AM
I was enjoying this article until the author made the comment, " Besides, a Hermès bag sounds like something my friend Shane should’ve seen a doctor about the night he went home with a girl who could best be described as “rugby player-esque.”
This is probably the most assinine statement I have ever read. First of all, it does not even make sense. If this was the author's attempt to be humourous, he failed miserably. Secondly, if he is going to be writing for an internet news page, it would serve the author well to keep his homophobic attitude and/or comments out of his writing. His ignorance says alot more than his writing ever will.
Posted by: HW | Apr 5, 2021 11:30:49 AM
to tl,
i don't think the comment was meant as homophobic. I think he meant that the woman looked like a linebacker and not a cheerleader...and as a result of her being so big and brutish he may have injured his man bits. i wouldn't take that as homophobic...mysoginistic maybe but not homophobic.
Posted by: Nicole | Apr 5, 2021 11:35:06 AM
tl, how was that a homophobic comment? Just curious, it sounds like you are overly sensitive and adding meaning to a joke that isn't there.
The word hermes just sounds like the word herpes...get it now? and rugby player-esque in my opinion doesn't describe a homosexual, it's you saying that that is ignorant.