--- Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
<http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-first21dec21,1,2979282.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage>http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-first21dec21,1,2979282.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage
> From the Los Angeles Times
>
> COLUMN ONE
>
>
> Last days of the First Street Store
>
> The East L.A. department store thrived for decades.
> No longer able to
> compete with malls and discount chains, it will have
> no new year.
> By Hector Becerra
> Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
>
[WS:] It is sad, indeed. However, I do not think it
is competition with malls, or for that mater any
economic factors, behind the store's demise. It is a
certain form of consumer identity politics, as
suggsted by the following passage:
> "Youth are a bit vain," De La Hoya said. "They don't
> want to tell
> friends, 'I bought these jeans or this skirt at the
> First Street
> Store.' They want to say, 'I bought this at a mall'
> or at a brand-name store."
Indeed, it is not economics but the perception of "coolness" - malls and their brand name merchandies are "cool" - stores like the First Street are not. This is especially true among adolescents. My ex's son got the essence of it when in response to his mother question why he had been buying the most expensive "brand" name clothes at the mall when he could a similar stuff for much less elsewhere he said "Mom, do you think that I like this stuff? I do not, but if I do not buy it, nobody will respect me."
My teacher friends made similar observations in schools in which they teach. Buying certain name brands and shopping at malls is a status symbol - and those who do not do that are looked down by their peers. Parents are as guilty of these attitudes as their kids. In the same vein, counter culture (e.g. punk) is often about consuming "opposite" products - discount clothing at second hand stores, etc.
A lot of people totally internalized consumerism and marketing propaganda - shopping at malls and buying expensive name brands - or alternatively doing so at the "cultural opposites" (used clothes at second hand places) is more about social status and sense of respectablity than about mere consumption. The First Street store tried to cater to the old fashined sense of utlity and value of consmer products, and that did it in. Instead, they should have start selling overpriced name brand products (Nikes, ipods, designer clothing, and kindred "cool" stuff) and charge an arm and a leg for it, as many so called "urban" stores do.
Had they done so, it is very likely that they would still be in business.
Wojtek
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