Elizabeth DeRosa, an elementary reading teacher in Gloversville, N.Y., said she was finally motivated to replace a hand-me-down coffee table after learning about the Cash-for-Clunkers promotion at Ruby & Quiri.Control4 Smart Home OS Your Home Simplified And Under Control “I think the days of instant gratification, of shopping-shopping-shopping, have kind of passed,” she added.įor consumers who have to make tough spending choices, trade-in promotions come down to getting the best deal possible. “The more you own, the more you have to dust, store, maintain,” said Marti Hedges, an interior designer in Scottsdale who recently had clients buy a new sofa and love seat through a cash-for-clunkers offer. In a recent survey it conducted of 1,003 American adults, Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve found that 9 of 10 respondents agreed that “I am considering opting for a simpler life” while three-quarters said that “buying less stuff” is appealing. “They have everything they actually need, and they actually want a lot less.” “People have fundamentally reassessed this whole notion of wants and needs,” he said. Matathia says, consumers are tiring of having so many possessions that they have to put some in storage. “It’s about getting rid of stuff,” said Ira Matathia, director of consulting and strategy at Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve, a strategic marketing firm in New York.īesides the logistical difficulty of extracting a three-piece sectional and finding someone to take it, Mr. “We’re seeing lots of trends where people are moving away from conspicuous consumption, to caring about the environment, to ‘Do I really want another one?’ ”Īnother appeal of the program is that it relieves consumers of the burden of removing their old things. Consumers are “a little less focused on themselves and more focused on the wider world,” said Jim Lucas, the director of shopper marketing at Draftfcb in Chicago, an ad and marketing agency that tracks consumer behavior. Retail analysts say the hesitancy to accumulate more things is increasingly common. During its August test run, Kitchen Kaboodle sold more than 50 Chantal kettles, double the previous month’s sales.
The woman left the store, and returned a few minutes later to drop off the old kettle and buy a shiny new red Chantal. Samsa heard a customer agonizing aloud about hating her old kettle, and used the opportunity to extol the benefits of getting something new and donating the old one to charity.
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The old kettles “still boil water, so they hate to get rid of them,” she said, “but a lot of the teakettles they’re just tired of or don’t like the looks of anymore.”ĭuring a trial run of Chantal’s teakettle trade-in program in August, Ms.
Maryann Samsa, the housewares buyer at Kitchen Kaboodle, an independent retailer with five locations in Portland, Ore., says customers have lately been reluctant to buy kettles. Guilt over new purchases can occur even with smaller items.
GREENER HABITS Customers receive a $25 gift card at Ruby & Quiri for trading in a used item like this box spring being broken down for recycling by Bill Rose, left, and Gary Buboltz. One factor in the appeal of these programs, say store managers who have tried them, is the relief it provides consumers from a vexing emotion: the guilt of conspicuous consumption. Certainly cash for clunkers worked much better than $5,000 off a car. He said successful promotions “are things that haven’t been tried before. “The traditional sales tools 25 percent off or layaways or financing they’re not working right now,” said Warren Shoulberg, the editor of Home Furnishings News, an industry magazine. Similar programs have sprung up in places like Portland, Ore., and Lexington, Ky., along with variations like Credit for Clunkers at 1-800-Mattress, Cash for Couches at Lillian August in Connecticut, and what some retailers are calling Cash for Teakettles, which Chantal Cookware Corp. At Pacific Manufacturing in Phoenix, which sells custom upholstered goods to interior designers, a used piece of furniture earns clients 10 percent off the purchase of any new furniture item or mattress and, after the clunker is delivered to a local charity, a tax-deduction receipt.
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