Why do people buy J.Crew?

JCrew is not cheap. When I was in college, JCrew was considered preppy and expensive. I went to one of the most expensive undergrad colleges in the country. Some posters are delusional about the true price spectrum for clothing. Most likely, they are very poor, and have no actual money or assets. For every wealthy person blowing $500 on pants, you'll find 10 who don't.

Originally Posted by gorgekko

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A lot of ballers on this web site. They buy their clothes second-hand at thrift stores but they jump on "poor" people who shop at J. Crew.
+1

Originally Posted by BB1

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The posters in this thread claiming that mostly poor people shop at J. Crew must live very insulated lives, or perhaps their hatred of J. Crew is clouding their judgement. Most people with above average income in the US dress poorly, have never heard of Kiton, and consider J. Crew to be high end stuff. 38% of customers make over $100,000 71% of customers make over $60,000 Estimates came from here: http://www.quantcast.com/jcrew.com#demographics
+1 at Millionaires and 100g plus big money surgeons and trial lawyers buying threads for their supreme court and country club appearances at a J. (for Joke) Crud firesale. $299 here in B&S would get you 100x the quality than the fake-preppy store market.

Originally Posted by Reevolving

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JCrew is not cheap.
When I was in college, JCrew was considered preppy and expensive.
I went to one of the most expensive undergrad colleges in the country.

Some posters are delusional about the true price spectrum for clothing.
Most likely, they are very poor, and have no actual money or assets.
For every wealthy person blowing $500 on pants, you'll find 10 who don't.




+1

Yep. J. Crew is EXTREMELY expensive.

Very people can afford to (or want to) actually "shop" there. You pretty much need to drop $1000 in one go to get a few looks from J. Crew.

On the other hand, J. Crew is marketed as an aspirational brand and many people are content to visit the store constantly until they can get a shirt at heavy markdown, and then brag about how cheap it is.

Originally Posted by BB1

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The posters in this thread claiming that mostly poor people shop at J. Crew must live very insulated lives, or perhaps their hatred of J. Crew is clouding their judgement.

Most people with above average income in the US dress poorly, have never heard of Kiton, and consider J. Crew to be high end stuff.

38% of customers make over $100,000
71% of customers make over $60,000

Estimates came from here: http://www.quantcast.com/jcrew.com#demographics

What would be very interesting to see is how much revenue they get from every income group.

Originally Posted by HPress

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Yep. J. Crew is EXTREMELY expensive.



Tell me about it, replacement buttons for their Ludlow coat are $100, EACH.

I spot checked a few prices:
$150 sweaters
$25 T-shirts
$60 chinos
$300 boots
$60 Oxfords

I'm not speaking to quality (or to sales), but you probably should be pulling down $80k minimum to play in this price range.
(I'd say $125k if you live in a city)
Unless, of course, you're a $30,000 millionaire, or a Prole riddled with credit card debt.

In my affluent college, most people wore $30 sweaters/shirts, $50 shoes, $10 T's, and $30 chinos.
So, the markup from "basic apparel" is about 100-500%.

Maybe I'm out of touch.
I didn't spend big on clothing until I had serious assets and job seniority/security.
And, that comes long after college age.
Then again, the JCrew sales demographics overwhelmingly back that up.

Originally Posted by Reevolving

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Maybe I'm out of touch.
I didn't spend big on clothing until I had serious assets and job seniority/security.
And, that comes long after college age.

The catch: very few people actually attain any assets or job seniority/security. The median family income in the U.S. is still 50,000 last time I checked.

The reason we are even having discussion because of J. Crew's (and similar brands') success in marketing itself as an aspirational brand. So many people "shop" there and feel they are participating even though they can't afford the clothes. It's kind of like when I was in high school and used constantly "shop" at Diesel and Benetton and Hugo Boss and the like, even though I bought one item every few months.

You do raise some good points.

Originally Posted by HPress

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The catch: very few people actually attain any assets or job seniority/security. The median family income in the U.S. is still 50,000 last time I checked.

.

It was less then that IIRC in the 2007 census. The Pew centre put out a piece a few months back claiming 80% of families had lost some income during the current recesion. Figure a chunk of that figure is non cash (health benefits etc) and the amount that can be spent is even lower.

Jcrew is cheap crap.

After all the hype on this board and the SW&D, I bit the bullet, used a 20% off code to purchase a few shirts, chinos, cords, and sweaters.

1st, the shirts fit horribly and feel like tissue rags. In a small the neck barely fits but I'm swimming in the chest and I have wings because the arms are so baggy. Sizing down to an XS won't allow me to button the neck, the chest is super tight, but I'm still swimming in the arms.

On top of that, the quality control is stupid. I purchased the exact same shirt but different color scheme (was going to return the one I didn't like after seeing it in person) and they measured to be off by as much as 1". Further research in the SW&D forum showed that this quality control issue is a common occurrence.

The sweaters like a previous poster mention are pretty trashy too. After 2 washes, its already piling and threads are pulling at the seams.

The only thing remotely wearable happens to be their cords. However, after recently finding Mabitex on our local B&S, I can't ever find a reason to go back to their khaki's when Mabitex is 10x the quality at half the price.

I would never purchase any of their clothing in the future, even at sale price. Club Monaco does their look better at the same price point and offers better construction for beater wear.

Price does not equal quality. My original complaint for this thread was that their merchandise is constructed cheaply, not necessary sold cheaply. They definitely market their stuff from the well-off perspective, but once you receive your fused, poorly constructed ludlow jacket you'll realize how much of a con it all is.

Originally Posted by ranker

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1st, the shirts fit horribly and feel like tissue rags. In a small the neck barely fits but I'm swimming in the chest and I have wings because the arms are so baggy. Sizing down to an XS won't allow me to button the neck, the chest is super tight, but I'm still swimming in the arms.

On top of that, the quality control is stupid. I purchased the exact same shirt but different color scheme (was going to return the one I didn't like after seeing it in person) and they measured to be off by as much as 1". Further research in the SW&D forum showed that this quality control issue is a common occurrence.

Yep. The fit of the shirts is sad. But I do like the fabric on mine. In fact, my favorite shirt is J. Crew. But as I said, I only buy them for $5 at Goodwill.

Originally Posted by ranker

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Jcrew is cheap crap. After all the hype on this board and the SW&D, I bit the bullet, used a 20% off code to purchase a few shirts, chinos, cords, and sweaters. 1st, the shirts fit horribly and feel like tissue rags. In a small the neck barely fits but I'm swimming in the chest and I have wings because the arms are so baggy. Sizing down to an XS won't allow me to button the neck, the chest is super tight, but I'm still swimming in the arms. On top of that, the quality control is stupid. I purchased the exact same shirt but different color scheme (was going to return the one I didn't like after seeing it in person) and they measured to be off by as much as 1". Further research in the SW&D forum showed that this quality control issue is a common occurrence. The sweaters like a previous poster mention are pretty trashy too. After 2 washes, its already piling and threads are pulling at the seams. The only thing remotely wearable happens to be their cords. However, after recently finding Mabitex on our local B&S, I can't ever find a reason to go back to their khaki's when Mabitex is 10x the quality at half the price. I would never purchase any of their clothing in the future, even at sale price. Club Monaco does their look better at the same price point and offers better construction for beater wear.
ROFLMAO at this post. Yes - it's J. Crew's fault when their XS sizing doesn't fit you, and when you are 'swimming' in the S. Maybe it's because these shirts were not designed for novelty-sized men, or to be worn like a hipster DB? Sorry they don't fit like faded polaroid-hip BoO 'handmade in China' crap. Yes - their sweaters suck because they pill, especially since you wash them! Yes - Mabitex khakis in B&S at $60 or $110 are 'half the price' of J. Crew khakis. Sweet jesus I hope you don't discover W+H, WWM, or Margiela - their stuff is less than 1/4 the price of J. Crew stuff!

Originally Posted by apropos

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ROFLMAO at this post.

Yes - it's J. Crew's fault when their XS sizing doesn't fit you, and when you are 'swimming' in the S. Maybe it's because these shirts were not designed for novelty-sized men, or to be worn like a hipster DB? Sorry they don't fit like faded polaroid-hip BoO 'handmade in China' crap.

Yes - their sweaters suck because they pill, especially since you wash them!

Yes - Mabitex khakis in B&S at $60 or $110 are 'half the price' of J. Crew khakis. Sweet jesus I hope you don't discover W+H, WWM, or Margiela - their stuff is less than 1/4 the price of J. Crew stuff!

Originally Posted by HPress

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The catch: very few people actually attain any assets or job seniority/security. The median family income in the U.S. is still 50,000 last time I checked. .
Well, that's perfect b/c the other "catch" is that very few people shop at JCrew. In fact, I'd even guess that most of the country has never even HEARD of JCrew. Proof? Contrast your USA median income to JCrew's reported medians. They are off the charts. (Almost half the JCrew customers earn over $100k) I'd also say that JCrew's customer income estimates are actually understated, if anything. Speaking for myself, I never check the "$200k+" box on those customer personal info cards. First, I never answer that ****, but if I can't get around it, I always pick an average bracket. I don't need their IT geeks targeting me for pesky cross marketing.