What is $5 worth to you?
By Nadine Kam
Nadine Kam photos
Mesh costume bracelet, $5 at the Vintage Collectibles & Hawaiiana Show.
“What can you buy for $5?A Nokia research team is asking people around the globe to take pictures and submit them to http://fivedollarcomparison.org
Submissions so far have ranged from a woman’s blouse in Bangkok to the price of admission to a movie in Lima, Peru. The campaign is a fun, clever little marketing exercise to start people thinking about a future of global connectivity that will be possible when the price of a mobile phone is dramatically lower than today.
Their campaign gives the rest of us something to think about, as to the way we value objects and services. A makeup artist friend was just complaining that, having set up a table at a shopping event, she discounted her usual brow-shaping rate from $35 to $5 as a courtesy to attendees, which caused one woman to dismiss her outright, as if a $5 job would not be as good as a $35 job, even though this was not the case.
I was also interviewing presentation coach Pam Chambers for a story on how she makes recession dressing work for her, to run in Thursday’s paper. Although she’s been a lifelong thrift-store enthusiast, mixing her wardrobe of recycled clothing with new retail purchases, she’s able to sense others’ distaste for secondhand apparel and compares it to blind taste-testing. That is, if their taste buds can’t detect a difference between bargain brand coffee and upscale coffee, they don’t think, “Gee, I think I’ll switch to the cheaper brand.” Instead, many people have a tendency to feel tricked and get angry.
In front of one of her three highly organized closets, Pam Chambers shows a mini skirt repurposed as a fall capelet for chilly offices.
I’ve gotten the same reaction when people ask me about something I’m wearing. Like Chambers, I often think I’m being helpful by saying something like, “Swap meet, $2,” so they can go get their own. But boy you can see their faces change, to the point where one of my friends who was with me on one such occasion said, “Don’t tell them anything. Just smile and say, ‘Thank you.’ ”
I try, but I feel somewhat non-forthcoming. It goes against journalist instinct to offer up less than the full story. It just demonstrates how people assume a high price equals quality, but smart shoppers know that good value can be found at every price point if you’re willing to keep your eyes and mind open.
As for the $5 comparison, I’ll be on the lookout for more. Oh, and if you find local thrift shops limiting, you can also try shopgoodwill.com
