dr greg
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,590
essay on the issue
I reckon the op-shop as we knew it is dead, I don’t know about Sydney, but in Nth NSW and Qld they no longer seem to see themselves as providing cheap clothes and goods for the poor.
I should declare an interest here, I am a “market trader’, (in the medieval sense) and being on the post-industrial scrap heap without super, sell clothes books etc at weekend markets rather than suffer the indignities of the dole office.
It is now becoming impossible to find those knick-knacks for 2 bux you can flog for 5, or the good jacket for 10 you can get 25 for. Brisbane is ridiculous, your corner op-shop there has anything “retro” going for 15-20 bux, and anything else older than the cheap Chinese invasion of the 90’s goes straight to the antique shops or is priced higher than King St Newtown.
I live in Murwillumbah, where I can assure you I haven’t seen a BMW for years, yet the local Sally’s thinks nothing of asking 120 bux for a beat-up suit that still has the original K-mart price tag inside saying $89.95, and prices are generally 5 times higher than they were 3 years ago.
And don’t get me going on hats…once upon a time a “bookie’s hat” could be picked up for 5 bux, but since rap stars started sporting them, it’s not uncommon to see them for 45 bux …at an op-shop!
Now I know this appears to be sour grapes at what is just basic market forces determining things, and the argument is no doubt valid that the higher prices mean more funds to take up the charity shortfall due to those same ideas holding sway at government level, but the system as it worked before benefited all. Now it’s being sharply targeted at the wealthy at the expense of those who don’t quite need food parcels, and the working poor.
I blame a viral internet malady I call ebayitis: every 2nd little old lady and church worthy now seems to think they’re an antiques dealer.
There is empirical evidence for my theory: I drive out into the country looking for odds and sods, camping out under the stars to keep costs down, and the bargains can be had out along the Condamine, where the tentacles of the Access Age haven’t yet spread, (those government policies again) and the old values hold sway. A man can make about a third of a living with the booty gleaned from the dusty plains. But that won’t last as broadband creeps across the land, and a noble tradition of bargain recycling will fade away, as will the quality of the weekend market. Think of the great cities of the world and their flea-markets, it’s on the way out here, I can tell you, and will go the way of the Rabbit-oh and the milkman.
Progress eh? What’s it really worth?
I reckon the op-shop as we knew it is dead, I don’t know about Sydney, but in Nth NSW and Qld they no longer seem to see themselves as providing cheap clothes and goods for the poor.
I should declare an interest here, I am a “market trader’, (in the medieval sense) and being on the post-industrial scrap heap without super, sell clothes books etc at weekend markets rather than suffer the indignities of the dole office.
It is now becoming impossible to find those knick-knacks for 2 bux you can flog for 5, or the good jacket for 10 you can get 25 for. Brisbane is ridiculous, your corner op-shop there has anything “retro” going for 15-20 bux, and anything else older than the cheap Chinese invasion of the 90’s goes straight to the antique shops or is priced higher than King St Newtown.
I live in Murwillumbah, where I can assure you I haven’t seen a BMW for years, yet the local Sally’s thinks nothing of asking 120 bux for a beat-up suit that still has the original K-mart price tag inside saying $89.95, and prices are generally 5 times higher than they were 3 years ago.
And don’t get me going on hats…once upon a time a “bookie’s hat” could be picked up for 5 bux, but since rap stars started sporting them, it’s not uncommon to see them for 45 bux …at an op-shop!
Now I know this appears to be sour grapes at what is just basic market forces determining things, and the argument is no doubt valid that the higher prices mean more funds to take up the charity shortfall due to those same ideas holding sway at government level, but the system as it worked before benefited all. Now it’s being sharply targeted at the wealthy at the expense of those who don’t quite need food parcels, and the working poor.
I blame a viral internet malady I call ebayitis: every 2nd little old lady and church worthy now seems to think they’re an antiques dealer.
There is empirical evidence for my theory: I drive out into the country looking for odds and sods, camping out under the stars to keep costs down, and the bargains can be had out along the Condamine, where the tentacles of the Access Age haven’t yet spread, (those government policies again) and the old values hold sway. A man can make about a third of a living with the booty gleaned from the dusty plains. But that won’t last as broadband creeps across the land, and a noble tradition of bargain recycling will fade away, as will the quality of the weekend market. Think of the great cities of the world and their flea-markets, it’s on the way out here, I can tell you, and will go the way of the Rabbit-oh and the milkman.
Progress eh? What’s it really worth?
