You realize, this complete query of whether to repair topics or update them hinges on the concept that it is certainly feasible to get them repaired. I'm starting to marvel whether it's miles authentic anymore.
A couple of years within the beyond, I presented a fall coat at the Goodwill preserve?A quick one to put on within the path of the months even as my winter coat become too heavy and a sweater now not heavy enough. The sleeves had been too long and it had massive, ridiculous 80s-style shoulder pads, but it have become made of top, darkish-grey wool and healthy me properly inside the torso, so I figured it changed into although a good buy for six greenbacks. I actually took out the shoulder pads, rolled up the sleeves, and wore it like that for two years.
This 12 months, with the cold weather coming near, I determined to take the coat to a tailor and see how a good buy it'd cost to regulate it so that it'd in form me properly. It could probably appear stupid to spend $40 on changes for a $6 coat, but I figured it would however be cheaper and much less wasteful than shopping for a ultra-modern one. So on Wednesday afternoon, I took the coat to a tailor store I'd passed via often, about 1/2 of a mile from my residence?Handiest to locate that it had lengthy past out of employer. I remembered another preserve some blocks away, but once I had been given there it modified into closed, with a signal within the window saying that during the month of September they'd be open best from 8am to midday. (What sort of business business enterprise closes at midday?)
This come to be beginning to get stressful, but I determined to present it one greater try. The next morning, I showed up at the tailor keep well in advance than 9am, sporting my coat. I showed it to the seamstress and defined what I wanted completed to it, and she or he or he said, in effect,
Well, I knew that what I was asking for wasn't impossible. I don't have the skill to reset a sleeve myself, but at least I know that it can be done. So I took the coat down the street to a dry cleaner that had a sign in the window saying "tailoring and alterations." Once again, I showed the coat and explained the problem. This time, the proprietor didn't actually say it was impossible, but she said it was "probably no good." Her English wasn't very good either, so I didn't quite understand what the problem was, but I did manage to grasp that the whole job would cost me $80 and they still couldn't guarantee the coat would fit afterwards. Given that I could buy a whole new coat that would definitely fit for less than $80, that didn't seem like much of a bargain.
The whole experience left me feeling sort of baffled. I admit, I find it frustrating that it should cost more to repair an existing coat than to buy a whole new one, materials, labor, and all. But I can at least understand why it's the case: the new coat is made by unskilled workers earning a pittance for their labor in Thailand or someplace, while the repair is done by skilled workers here in the U.S. who expect a reasonable fee for their efforts. But can it really be possible that these skilled laborers don't even exist anymore? That nowadays, people who call themselves tailors and charge $80 for a repair can't even manage to reset a pair of sleeves? Has our society really come to the point where, at least where clothes are concerned, throwing it out and buying a new one is the only option?
