The old adage “you get what you pay for” is like a biblical quote in consumerism happy America. There seems to be something in the latest must-have gewgaw for every income level, and sometimes the expensive item doesn’t look different when stood against the cheap one (especially from several feet away).
Every year I take at least one bus trip to New York, and inevitably a bunch of dudes toting bulging bundled bedsheets, like a bunch of off duty Santas, walk down the street with some followers in tow, set the bundles down on a patch of pavement, and hordes of people swarm around to buy the knock-off illegal replicas of handbags inside them. These are the type of bag that would set the penny-pinching customers back a few hundred dollars in Macy’s.
I have no idea what type of bargain these rip-offs would be, but then I have a $50 price limit on any handbag I buy, so Coach and Dior won’t make a thing on me even if they are on sale. Besides, I would never plunk down a cent on a handbag I knew wasn’t legit. I don’t think it’s right to flash somebody’s name around if I don’t know how the name got on the merchandise: sometimes these knock-offs are made by abused slave laborers. They may even generate profits for drugs or weaponry.
A few people I’ve known over the years have taken the opportunity to carry around one of the real satchels through a rental service online that sends a new bag to you to use for a monthly fee, and then return it for a newer one. The people who indulge in this unique phenomenon like to show off their purses to co-workers and other admirers. Usually the response is “Wow.” At any price, that seems like a pretty expensive and shallow way to get recognition. My lipstick and pocket change fit just fine in a $50 handbag. By the way, I also buy my bags at Macy’s, right beside the expensive ones.
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