I suppose this post should be more about the fact that I was surprised by a comment I read in a N.Y. Times story than about the comment itself. First things first: the Times story quotes a salesman telling some customers not to buy:
“I love to sell safes, don’t get me wrong,” said Ray Cole, 58, a former New York City police officer who sells safes at his store, Cole Safe and Lock, on the Upper East Side. “But everybody’s hurting right now. You shouldn't spend money you don’t have to.”
Imagine that! A salesman saying don't buy. It's almost as revolutionary as Santa sending Macy's customers to Gimbels in A Miracle on 34st Street. Of course former policeman Cole owns the shop, so he can do whatever he pleases. I wonder how he would have reacted if some part-time employee of his said the same thing. But that's just me being cynical. I salute him, and hope that others will react the same way and if they have to buy a safe, go to his store to do so.
For sure, unemployment has made me a lot thriftier as a shopper. Out went the 5-blade $3.50 razor blades, as did the impulse purchases of Amazon books or Publix flowers. HD cable? I can live without. A friend of mine in another state got so angered at a cable company price hike that he cancelled the whole thing. Now he's hooking up converter boxes to his analogue TV's to watch free over the air TV. As for a home safe, more and more of us would like to have one for security if we had anything to put in it. Real Estate prices keep dropping, as does the value of the 401k accounts everybody told us to start "for the long haul". I can't be the only one tempted to gather what money I have left and put it in a safe, or under the mattress, which would be thriftier, if not safer.
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