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For years friends and i have been stunned at pricing on “Jewish styled clothing”
It is disproportionately expensive for NO reason. Randomly they have sales 50% off or more! Which shows the markup while we all struggle to pay!
Is there a reason for all this?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Stressed out 🙁
Why is kosher food so expensive? Why is yeshiva tuition so expensive? Why are Jewish books so expensive?
Don’t shop a a store that over charges you. Clothing does not need a hecsher and if something is to your liking (and fits your tznius levels) buy it from a non jewish store.
What’s “your tznius level” mean? Tznius level is set by halacha not you.
More competition = lower prices.
Less competition = higher prices.
Illusory competition (when “competing” stores agree to fixed prices and anti-competitive agreements)= higher prices.
Joseph, have you not heard of chumrahs?
Lack of economies of scale. Small stores have higher costs relative to sales.
A Jewish equivalent of Sears or Walmart would result in lower prices, but eena place like Brookklyn would have trouble providing enough business.
Explanation: clothing is seasonal and quickly goes out of style. In order to attract the (too) discriminating frum market, they need to carry a very wide selection. Unless they do a very high volume, they need to mark up their in season styles high enough to make up for the fact that they will be left with dead merchandise.
Advice: wait for the closeouts and pay 50%.
The clothing in the frum market changes every year?
Yes
Been wearing the same style shirt and pants for years.
Are you a girl!
hey, when did my subtitle show up?
luvin it!
Why can’t girls wear the same style clothing this winter as they did last winter, or this summer same as a year before?
being that the stores are located n areas with high rents, the stores have got to find a way to make money.` So prices are somewhat higher then other places. Anyway, now is the best time to go shopping as the stores are clearing out their winter merchandise at really good prices.
Also, tznius clothing has to fit certain parameters that non-Jews don’t care about, or outright don’t want. Like necklines. So the stores have a smaller client base.
Joseph-I do.
It’s okay not to wear the latest style. You know what looks the best on people? Pretty clean clothes that bring out your good parts and compliment you. So what if it’s from 3 years ago. It looks nice, compliments you, and that’s what matters. As long as you don’t look like you walked out of a historical film…it’s fine
You can’t be rich and frum though.
shopping – you can be rich and frum how do you think the rabbis wifes support them? they come from wealthy families and their parents support their husbands. We should be rich and able to do mitzvos with the money Hashem gave to us.
Gashmiyus and Ruchniyus can’t go together. Rarely they do.
Making money to support your husband is not gashmiyus even if you go to college and get a top paying job like a pharmacist it still isnt gashmiyus its a huge mitzvah.
I’m not even going to get started on the Gashmius/Ruchnius debate, as so far, what I’ve seen above concerning this inyan is pointless at best, and fallacious at worst.
There are several reasonably simple reasons why these clothing stores are expensive, some, all or none of which may apply in any given case.
The first is the above-mentioned principle of economies of scale. In cases of clothes specifically catering mainly to the frum community, there is only really demand for a limited amount of articles, meaning the cost of having them commissioned and produced is not as thinly spread, and as such leads to higher prices. Or, put more simply, making more of something means lower costs, and lower prices for the consumer, and the same is true for the reverse.
Another, similar but slightly different, factor is that many of these shops are small, high street shops. This is largely due to the fact, also mentioned above, that there are not enough customers to support a large clothing shop, which are generally on cheaper, out-of-town premises. Therefore, overheads such as rent and staff are comparatively higher. in order to turn a profit, prices are higher, and since there are fewer items sold than in large retailers, the profit on each one must be larger.
So essentially, the key reason is economies of scale, from the development and production stage right down to the store selling them.
Personally, I think the fact that there is little competition with regard to some products, like hats, streimels, sheitels, and similar niche frum products, lead to certain sellers taking advantage. Some of the markups on these products are clearly massive, for example Borsalino, where the profit margin can only be enormous. The fact that the frum consumer tends to be less discerning, and be affected by outside factors such as peer pressure, compounds this. This is especially true of the above example, but can easily be applied to other products geared towards the frum market.
However, in time, a growing community and greater recognition of some of the above issues may hopefully mitigate or indeed eradicate this.
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