An article in the Wall Street Journal tells the story of a profession that has been in decline for decades that is finally seeing an upsurge in business; Shoe Cobblers.
Once a thriving business, wealth and the relatively cheap price of goods, has drove the shoe repair industry to the edge of extinction.
“There are just 7,000 shoe-repair shops left in the U.S., down from more than 120,000 during the Great Depression, according to the Shoe Service Institute of America, a trade group.”- WSJ
The idea of repairing a pair of shoes would not have occurred to most Americans a year ago, but as wallets shrink and belts tighten, consumer culture is getting a rethink.
“It’s better to pay $40 to fix them than $500 for a new pair,” Says Lawrence Sutton to WSJ, as he drops off a pair of Prada pumps off to be repaired for his wife.”
What this story tells us is that Americans are learning to do something that they may have not had to do in decades, how to survive. We have gone from keeping up with the Jones’s to being happy with the fact that we have not gotten sucked under.
We hear every day about how hard this economy is on the “Average Taxpayer” but all this is said with the expectation that at some point everything will go back to business as usual. But, traumas like losing a home, job, or seeing relationships crumble in the wake of financial turmoil will not be erased if Ford posts higher than expected earnings next quarter.
To say that the American consumer that will be there at the end of this recession will be the same one that went into it is naïve. The ideas of value, practicality and saving will be much more present in the minds of the consumer than they have been in the past.
