Clothes and the Price of Ga$ - Page 3

4 bucks a gallon here in the midwest. It's rather brutal, living in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area makes driving 20 miles each way requisite for getting to most worthwhile destinations, including most shopping other than Super Target. At 4 bucks a gallon and 20mpg, suddenly a trip to the mall is 8 bucks... not to mention driving to class, so yeah it adds up rapidly. I can easily drive 80 miles a day, which is over $100 a week... that's about $50 out of my disposable income per week compared to when gas was $2 a gallon. That's $200 a month before I was definitely spending on clothing / other BS, so yeah definitely cutting down on the spending. As for the scooter / motor cycle thing, would love to if I didn't have to drive on 70MPH interstate daily with a bunch of soccer moms who can't set down their cellphone. Terrifying.

It takes over a tank of gas to drive to Chicago from these parts. Both cars take premium and the SUV which uses regular, sucks gas at a rapid rate. When parking at John Hancock is added, the cost makes me think about whether the trip is really needed. A couple of weeks ago I made purchases over the phone and had the items shipped. I see myself doing this more as the cost of driving to Chicago increases.

I think the price of gas/oil hits harder in production/transportation costs than it does to the end consumer driving to the Grove. People may take less leisure trips to the mall; but, once there I don't think they may buy less. If anything you may see a higher ratio in the amount of sales: amount of customers through the door. They will either be shopping with an intent or feel that they don't want to have to come back and will coerce themselves into buying.

Like Mauro said about instead of buying 2 jeans and 1 shirt they will buy 1 and 1, I could see a shopper who is already in the economic bracket to be buying said clothing buy instead 1 pair of jeans and 1 shirt and like 2 tshirts instead since they want to maximie their utility.

Also, I think we may see a spike in online shipping and certainly more offers on free shipping from Click & Mortar retailers. If J.Crew can't get people to come into their stores, then they will take the small hit to their margin at $5-$10 shipping if it means they can get the customers out there to buy online since they can capitalize on the "I don't want to drive and spend gas $" mentality.

I am basically getting stuff at some discount only nowadays
I do 60 miles round trip a day for work averaging 22.8 MPG at $4/Gallon
thats a lot, plus i drive a ton other besides work

gas bill for me is close to $300 a month now...
killing me

SoCal, I agree. For myself, I buy about the same amount or even a bit more when I go shopping, but I am now reducing the number of trips.

I pretty much exclusively shop through the sufu supermarket and SF B&S. I used to drive over to the westside to cruise shops and get inspired, but on my budget, I can't really afford to anymore. I have to commute a lot to work, and on tour, my band's revenues have plummeted in the last year. I'm trying to save as much as I can but I have definitely been smashed by fuel prices.

I live in Quebec City now and the shopping here is definitely sub-par, so I do try to make it up to Montreal every now and then for shopping. It's about a 500 km (300 mile) round trip though, so it's kind of pricy so I go less often but make a weekend of it and see friends and shows.

I don't really understand why people are complaining about spending 5 or 10$ more on gas to go buy luxury clothing though. It's probably pretty much negligeable when you factor it in with the overall cost of the clothes. Yes, it sucks to pay more for gas, but when you're willing to pay 250$ for a pair of jeans, does it really matter?

I wanted to start biking to work. Once gas started climbing it was bike or no clothes budget. Not bad since it's only 3.25 miles or so both ways but it still saves me quite a bit. Plus two weeks of that 6 days a week has already broken in my raw denim more than 3 solid months of basic day-to-day wear (not exaggerating).

3.25 miles? You can probably go a month on one tank...

I just started biking everywhere and basically stopped using my car. So I'm saving $ on gas, but I'm gonna blow out the ass on my sammy's. I can't win!

PG2G: 6.5 round trip but that still not much - I should mention I also ride to make most trips to the store too. I have a fuel efficient car but for some reason that trip to and from work destroys my mileage. Could be that I start and stop about every block. Morse: Bummer man. The crotch/seat area of mine are wearing disturbingly fast, too. Perhaps time for a preventative patch?

Haha, that is great

Another problem is, with the slowing economy, I am working less overtime, which used to give me an extra few hundred a month... I am now not getting that at all working little to no overtime.

haha, such a great expression.

My girlfriend and I went to fill up yesterday and watched as the guy in front of us in a BMW 7 series proceded to fill his tank with $98... He turned back towards us and just smiled. I used to drive 72 miles every day for work for 4 years before all this mess. Although I sometimes miss going to work, working from home certainly saves me a ton of cash. I think many of our jobs aren't so close where we can use scooters and tiny vehicles. We have been a driving culture for years and our jobs revolve around it. I know very few people who live and work within a 5 mile radius.