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Lately, maybe because everyone's looking at the summer, realizing they need to buy new clothes, go on vacation, go to a ton of wedddings, or suffering the after effects of The Apprentice, everyone's up in arms about how expensive it is to live in the city. The Post looked at how NYC's discretionary spending in areas like clothing and personal care is greater than other cities, and the Observer devotes a textured look at the insanity of expensive things we think we need, with chilling words like, "And all those work freebies—the car service, those fashion-shoot clothes, books, drinks—that you count against your outgoing expenses: They don’t mean you’re living cheap, baby. They’re merely a component of your sorry rationalizations as you quickly spend the money elsewhere."
And then there's the $1,000 omelet at the Norma's, plus the businessman who spent $28,000 at Scores (and claims he didn't spend that much). AUGH!! But, as many of us know, just because we live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, it doesn't mean one needs to be loaded. Gothamist is glad there are still great options for living thriftily in the city, like shopping at H&M and sample sales, calling a trip to Fort Tyron Park a "trip to the country," renting DVDs via Netflix - not buying them, walking or using your monthly Metrocard instead of cabbing it (punctuality be damned!), checking out the cheap eats editions of Time Out NY and New York, finding sugar daddies and mommies, finding cheap apartments through the obituaries. And this madness makes Gothamist realize our holiday gift to friends will be subscriptions to Budget Living Magazine. That is, only if they give us gifts.
The Times spoke with Budget Living editor Sarah Gray Miller, who led Budget Living to win a National Magazine Award for General Excellence (circulation 250,000 to 500,000).
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Shit; this city isn't expensive. I just returned from two weeks in Reykjavik where crap pizza slices or burritos run you minimum $10 each. Happy hour cheap beer costs $5. Filling up your gas tank comes to around $100. Luckily though the native delicacy is decomposed shark meat or lamb's head.
The sad thing is that you could shop and H&M at around 1,000 places in the world. Is there really no local cheap place?
Umm Century 21 and Barney's Warehouse Sale and Beacon's Closet if you want to count it
dumspter diving!
oops, i meant dumpster. its f-ing freezing in my office, makes it hard to type
Yeah! Century 21 is a much better choice in this instance. You could use NetFlix anywhere too and the there are actually some cool little local video stores left in nyc (unlike in most parts of the country).
i like to buy all of my crack in bulk! saves me a mint!
There are tons of local places, but rather than going into the minute details of each one, I decided to speak on a broader level.
I like local video stores, but personally, since my neighborhood doesn't have good video stores, I can't beat Netflix. It's door to door.
Gothamist, the place that gushes over pricey foodie restaurants does a focus on "budget" living.
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Makes sense to me - if you diligently save $ on necessities (like clothes), then you can splurge on the occasional fancy meal at a restaurant or nice groceries. That's what I do. Beacon's closet, H&M, and Old Navy rule my wardrobe but Whole Foods rules my fridge. I'll put cheap s*** on my body but not in it.
Wow I didn't realize that food wasn't a necessity
If you shopped with Fresh Direct instead of Whole Foods you'd still have nice (if not nicer) groceries and then be able to get a fancier meal at a restaurant and also not have to shop at the gap ("The gap, like, oh my gawwwwd"). Insert TWC Mall rank here.
If you're in Park Slope or vicinity, the Park Slope Food Coop has prices and food quality that kicks serious ass. Yes, you must work a measly 2:45 minutes every four weeks, but it pays off in the long run.
Then again, so many people on Gothamist seem to be 'above' doing basic work that they wouldn't do it.
Not to be too critical but it is kinda sad that a site called Gothamist (and its readers) cheering on the forces of homogonization like cheesy H&M/crappy Old Navy and Netflix that in the long run will end up making new york an awful like everywhere else (only with 5 times the rent for 1/5 the space). When is the gothamist meeting at Applebee's?
Testify C! That's exactlty the problem most yuppie store defenders don't get. Earth to Gothamist. Before H&M and Old Navy existed there were local clothes stores like Antique Boutique, FLIP, Unique and Canal Jeans. All locally owned. All had very cool stuff that you could not find anywhere else. And now they're gone. Spend a few dollars more and suppport a local store and tell Old Navy and H&M and Urban Outfitters to go ram it. New York is seriously over tourist oriented. Soho has gone to shit. And promoting mass-market chain stores in a city as unique as NYC is ass backwards for an NYC site.
Wow, I never realized that I was a yuppie before because I shopped at H&M (I do shop at locally owned stores also). Funny, I don't even make as much money as the average NYer. Who knew?!
These idiots dissin' H&M were shopping there when it first opened in Madhattan, but now that the "cool" factor is gone they join the hip train to complain about it. If NYers could only get over themselves and realize that although they live in the metropolis of shizznit we're all still just porous flesh and gristly bone - same as those apparent kooks in Kansas stripmalls.
K,
How would you know where I shop? What is this "hip train" you are talking about? Who said anything about people in Kansas being kooks? I'm from Kansas as a matter of fact and the people are great. The only thing is, that if I'm going to shop and eat and the same places I could back home it would be a smart thing to just move back and get a nice house with a massive backyard for less than it costs me to just walk out the door everyday in nyc. To say nothing of the many small extra hassles of nyc living that gothamist has documented.
What you don't get is that it isn't just some snobby thing about the city being homogenized - it is about everywhere being drained of a little more local verve and personality. I haven't a clue what "shizznit" is (though it sounds like you are the one on cheeZy "hip train" -one that left the station long ago my friend) but I think of people as individuals rather than just focus-groupable "gristly bone" and there's nothing wrong with supporting places (all over the world not just in new york) that are expressions of that individuality. But hey, congrats, your worldview is winning.
Speaking as someone who's been banished to Boston for almost 8 years now, what makes NYC great is having your cake *and* eating it, too. Sure, sometimes the little indie shops are great -- they can be unique, less expensive, and often have superbly informed staff/owners. The same with restaurants, too.
However, having a Target or a Whole Foods or Duane Reede or Barnes & Noble as a back-up can be indispensible. Sometimes, that chain-mall, nation-wide, homogenized, industrial-cookie-cutter familiarity is what saves you. They have a larger variety, they have more staff, they have more stock, they're open longer hours... And, I mean, hell -- sometimes I want a Krispy Kreme instead of going to Norma's.
As a consumer, what I miss about Manhattan is having it all -- no matter which route I choose, I can get what I want. You don't get that many other places.
As someone looking from the outside, I'd take the (slightly more) expensive, (slightly) smaller apartment to get that back... Anyone want to rent cheaply to a responsible resident who's sick of New England?
Well "shizznit" is actually a term from a well-known (left coast) hip-hop artist; I guess you truly are from Kansas. So do you really believe that a few H&Ms and other chain stores are going to homogenize a city as large and diverse as NYC? I'm all for the independents, but capitalism is allowed in today's society so whoever buys what is actually in control. If so many idiots (individuals) didn't buy Big Macs do you think McD's would survive? Some advice: venture out of midtown.
Ex - I lived in Boston in the early 90's and understand where you are coming and you have a fair point. (I can say honestly that none of the stores you mentioned has ever saved me from anything. Yet.)
Manhattan, a classic have your cake and eat it too place, will be able to withstand the onslaught better than many areas but this is about other towns too and really it is kind of a self fufilling prophecy - for instance the once little books guys have withered away making it harder to rely on little book guys and so you go to Borders and so on - a vicious cycle. There was a Times article years ago about a indie bookstore closing and the reporter interviewed sad passers by, loaded down with B&N bags, who just couldn't understand what happened. People really don't put their actions into the equations of these things.
I saw the cycle in Kansas too - when they really started popping up the middle class sit-down places were a fun backup but now they dominate almost completely. (Fast food chains had long before taken the low end.) No I don't think that will happen to nyc but the red lobster in mahattan is already the 3rd best performing the country. As a consultant (possibly K?) said in a nyt article about the upcoming explosion of chain resturants nyc "The diners in New York are no different than those in Arkansas."
I know where "shizznit" is from but see, Snoop gave you your next set of orders when he went on SNL and told folks it was over and enough already with copying him. After all, Bob Newhart used the term - that's what I meant by the train having left the station.
To be honest I rarely venture into midtown but if you think midtown is the last of the chains you are clueless - red lobster/olive garden/old navy (just to name a few) are known to be looking for spots all over the city and have you been on block lately without a Subway sandwhich shop? No I don't think nyc will be completely won over but see the post above - the people whose business it is to know seem to think it will be.