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From Retail to Resale: A Trend to Slow Down Fashion

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In the world of fashion, consumers are starting to realize that “fast” often means “wasteful.” Fast fashion is the Louis Vuitton pursesbusiness model where clothing designers produce trendy fashion apparel and accessories through a fast and cheap process. These products may be replicas of fashion designs that were featured on the catwalk, or they may be promoted by celebrities and online influencers. But this endless cycle of mass-produced, low-cost goods forces manufacturers to make compromises along the way. Workplace conditions, wages and environmental considerations are ignored to meet consumers’ demand as quickly as possible.

And when the trends move on to some new look, what’s left? These fast fashion designs don’t get the same workmanship or high-quality materials as luxury brands, and the products often aren’t made to outlast the trend.

Sustainability and A Circular Economy

Fortunately, there is a growing trend of fashion-conscious consumers who are making a deliberate effort to embrace shopping with a different mindset. High fashion brands are known for high quality workmanship and these goods can last a long time when cared for properly. Buying a pre-loved handbag puts couture brands in reach for more customers, but this altered behavior benefits more than just the consumers who recognize the cost benefits. It also helps the environment through sustainability and encourages a circular economy.

A circular economy tackles the new threats we are facing today, such as climate change, biodiversity, waste, and pollution. Instead of following a take, make, and waste linear system, a circular economy moves to a reuse, share, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, and recycle goods. This makes it more of a closed-loop system that places less burden on the environment to produce new raw materials.

If everyone does their part, we can make a difference for sustainability. The choices we make when shopping can have multiple advantages not only to our wallet but also to the environment. But shopping with a more thoughtful mindset still requires smart choices. Buying designer or luxury items at a resale location whether it be online or in-person, also has risks, so be sure to shop at a reputable retailer who can authenticate the products they sell.

Kamaaina Loan now has that ability to authenticate brand name purses and handbags for a nominal fee. This gives you the ability to see for yourself the authenticity of a designer handbag. While you’re there, check out their selection of pre-loved Louis Vuitton handbags.

Comb through your attic, then your hair . . .

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. . . and then bring yourself and your strangest or most interesting possession down to Kamaaina Loan on Thursday or Friday. You’ll want to comb your  hair because you can be on TV.

Reality TV production company Pawn Stories will be videoing in our shop both days, and you can be part of the show!

 

No kidding, Most reality shows are scripted, wholly or totally (you knew that, right?>), but not this one. Our customers and staff will do what they do, and the cameras will catch it.

If you prefer to keep off camera but have business anyway (like paying off a loan and reclaiming a pawn), we will have a separate, camera-free area for you.

We’re combing our hair, too, and looking to have a lot of fun, and we’d like you to be part of it. And stay for Wailuku First Friday.

$35,000 parking spaces

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Least surprising local news of the week is that the county will not proceed with making the Wailuku Municipal Parking Lot a multi-story garage, at a cost of $35,000 per stall gained.
That’s right. The parking spot would cost more than the car parked in it.
This is usual. When I worked in Des Moines, Iowa, the city built a series of multistory parking garages downtown, and each stall cost roughly twice what a new car cost in those days. The garages charged 35 cents an hour to park, and, remarkably, that was sufficient revenue to pay off the bonds. (In Des Moines, they used something called “tax increment financing,” which was a form of betting on the come – the bonds were supported by the expected increase in property taxes that was to come about when the garage made surrounding property more valuable; the parking lot equivalent of trickle-down economics. It worked, in the sense that the bonds did not default. It did not work, in the sense that the city was trying to revitalize downtown. People did not decide to forgo free parking at the suburban malls in order to pay 35 cents to park downtown.)
Should a Wailuku multistory garage get built, and should it be required to be self-supporting, presumably it would have to charge in the neighborhood of 75 cents an hour. Since the municipal lot is used largely by workers who park without charge, I do not see them welcoming the opportunity to pay $6 a day to park.
It shouldn’t have required an environmental impact statement to figure this out.
There’s a reason multistory garages are uncommon. They are ridiculously expensive. Only resorts, whose land is even more ridiculously expensive, have them; and Queen Kaahumanu Center.
At Kaahumanu Center, the owners (at the time, ML&P) wanted to retain their standing as the primo mall on the island, because of a rule of thumb in the mall business that the No. 1 mall enjoys an 8% premium in revenue over lesser malls. Unable to grow out, Kaahumanu Center had to go up, making itself two stories and adding two very expensive parking garages.
As it turned out, it didn’t work, for several reasons. One, Duncan McNaughton built a loooong strip mall along Dairy Road and placed in it a lot of stores that normally you’d find in the local dominant mall, like Sports Authority. Two, because Maui is a tourist island, Shops at Wailea and Whalers Village scarfed up the high-end retailers like Coach that normally you’d find at the local primo mall.
But Shops at Wailea did not become the local primo mall because it doesn’t have the stores that draw people to the dominant mall for their day-to-day shopping – no Macy’s or equivalent.
As often happens, Mainland rules don’t apply here.
Wailuku is certainly congested, but it is not obviously a place to put expensive parking: In general, it has the lowest commercial rents around.
So parking is likely to remain a pain in Wailuku. The only old city I have been in where no-charge parking downtown is not a pain is Savannah, Georgia. It was founded as a military colony and the original layout set aside every sixth block or so for militia training grounds.
Remarkably, these were not poached for development even after militia uses receded. As a result, there are miles of empty block fronts where cars can park a short distance from the built-up blocks where people want to go. It’s awfully expensive in land, but it works.
Lucky for Kamaaina Loan & Cash for Gold, we have our own private parking (it’s behind our retail store at 98 North Market Street).

‘I learn something new every day’

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I bought a fountain pen, so I went to Office Max to get a bottle of ink. The very young clerk was eager to help, but she didn’t know what a fountain pen was.

“I never heard of that,” said she.

A slightly okler clerk came to our rescue, but it turned out the store had only ink cartridges, not bottled ink. The clerk advised me to try Ben Franklin.

Ben Franklin had bottled India ink, but in a locked cabinet. “You need to lock up the ink?” I asked,

“The kids steal it,” the very helpful clerk said. “They use it for tattoos with a pin.”

I learn something new every day.

(Our Maui Gold Buyers store at 98 North Market sells new, professional tattoo gun outfits for a reasonable price. Don’t steal ink. If you are going to tattoo, do it right.)