Celebrating Lower Prices – Sort Of

                                        

If someone asked me to choose one item of clothing that I’d opt for over anything else, that would be a no-brainer – a polo shirt.

I’ve purchased and worn hundreds of styles and brands since college – Polo, Slazenger, El Tigre, Munsingwear/Penguin; Adidas; Puma – I could go on. For whatever reason they fit me better than anything else and even decidedly non-fashionistas like me realize they pretty much can be paired with any pants or shoes. When I received my first Lacoste polo for a long-distant birthday- gleaming white with the trademark alligator logo, it fit like it was custom made. I held on to it for years until I accidentally mixed it in with a new colored queen sheet and it came out of the wash a blotchy shade of red.

But as anyone knows, Lacoste has been and is, price prohibitive for those on a budget and who don’t summer in the Hamptons. In fact, pre-COVID-19, a standard alligator polo retailed for close to $90, which even as big a groupie as I am, refused to pay. But for whatever reason, I recently received an email from the company broadcasting up to 60 percent off some styles. Long story short when I get a chance to buy Lacoste for $40, I jumped and now the top drawer in my armoire is stocked with a half-dozen new occupants.

But apparently discounted prices across nearly all retail sectors are an unintended consequence of the pandemic. Imagine my surprise when I went to fill up my car and learned the price for unleaded at my local station had plummeted to $2.19 a gallon because of the oil glut. That same day I received the monthly bill for my car insurance and discovered it was roughly $35 less than normal.

So, amidst these eye-opening cost reductions, I did some research.

For the month of May, the apparel industry saw prices drop an average of 2.3 percent, which explains my bargain basement largesse of Lacoste. Gas prices fell roughly 3.5 percent – good news for consumers, not so much for the oil titans. Airfares fell nearly 5 percent, as cautious travelers were not so anxious to remain in an enclosed space for hours even with a mask and gallons of Purell. Like the cost-cutting at Lacoste, that may work to our advantage as we have a trip planned next month to see my father in Georgia. Hotel rooms to no one’s surprise plunged nearly 9 percent. When you see upscale properties like the Wynn in Las Vegas advertising same day rooms for $50, you know there’s trouble afoot.

While there’s a short-term benefit, the long-range effects won’t be quite as pleasant. The precipitous drop in prices obviously is a result of decreased consumer demand and that may ring the death knell for many companies across myriad industries who are unable to rebound.

Yesterday, I received a flier from a local realtor wanting to know if we were in the market to sell our house and promised us “top dollar.”

When it comes to bargains, I’ll only go so far.