On Sale at Old Navy Summary

When Cave states “Their low prices and hip-but-wholesome branding strategy are supposed to present a healthy alternative to the conspicuous consumption of a Calvin Klein,” (68) the connotation of the statement is negative because of the fact that simple, cheap-but-stylish stores like Old Navy are selling clothes to the middle class so they are able to feel special and in coordination with the world’s genre of clothing.
Cave almost defends the critics like Thomas Frank that have a problem with people that aren’t financially stable enough to go out and nonchalantly spend $500 on designer clothes labeled with tags of flamboyancy; so instead, they use their resources to buy articles of value and style.
But Joel Reichart’s statement that “They provide remarkable value,” (69) and “They’re truly satisfying people’s needs,” (69) gives the defendant side that in the jungle of popular culture, there is still room to let people of lesser income to insert stylish and attractive possessions in their lives in order to present their selves in a way that doesn’t allow profiling to be strictly based on clothes. In the world, people were, and still are, being judged greatly or lightly by materialistic ideas like what type of jeans they wore on a normal weekday.

For example: if someone were to display their income through a nicer shirt than the person standing beside them, the chances of social success was generally greater. The sad but twisted perception of what is “hot”, “popular”, or “cool” that today’s popular culture has relies on two things — how to show off and boast and the immorally laced idea of sexiness regarding age. But now that there are stores like Old Navy and Ikea, the thought of how “cool” someone is based on their appearance has almost vanished.
People are starting to step into the realization that every outfit worn or every cool shirt advertised by movie stars or their favorite basketball player in the league will not be an attribute to success or reflect them as a person they are not. In the media world, style is what the actors want people to see them as (or in simpler terms: a mask). But, in the real world, style is simply what a person wants to wear. It is a decision. Decisions by others are worth complete and total respect no matter what the choice is.