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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Waldorf Doll Underwear Indicator

Ever heard of Alan Greenspan's Underwear Indicator theory? I was listening to NPR marketplace the other day, where, for the umptieth time, it was discussed whether the economy is improving or not.

I had never heard of Mr. Greenspan's (Chairmen of the Federal Bank) interesting theory about male underwear buying patterns and how they explain what is going on with the economy. It made me laugh when I looked it up:
Mr. Greenspan argues that:" if you think about all the garments in the household, the garment that is most private is the male underpant, because nobody sees it except people in the locker room, but who cares," Krulwich told NPR. "Your children need clothes, your wife needs clothes that have to change, your children grow, you need clothes on the outside. But the last purchase that you don't have to make is underpants.... [men wear them until they are in] total tatters."
Sorry, Mr. Greenspan! But I think you are wrong. At least when taking into account my guy's buying pattern for underwear. He just doesn't buy any undies. Ever!


But then I started thinking about my dolly underwear sales and how this theory made perfect sense. Yes, I have actual proof that Mr. Greenspan is right. Sales of doll underwear have been down dramatically this past year. I sold only very few pairs of shorts and bloomers over the last 12 months. Despite the fact that doll bloomers and shorts are one of the cheapest items in my Etsyshop they don't sell much at all. It seems that in these hard economic times people don't want to spend money on an item you don't see much anyways. Not that dolls ever destroy their undies and manage to turn them into these unmentionable tatters guys call underwear. Is that why the are called unmentionables?


Well, I decided to be optimistic about the whole thing anyways. I recently sold a set of shorts, and I am working on some new sets for Christmas. Hope your dolls will find some underwear under the Christmas tree this year!

My husband will for sure. Pst! Don't tell him! LOL

5 comments:

Saints and Spinners said...

Here's the thing about underwear: when you're a kid, any punchline or song that has some variation of it is FUNNY. The beauty of "underwear" is that it is slightly rude without being a Potty Word. The Captain Underpants series provokes snickers based on title alone.

I have a string game progression that starts out with Jacob's Ladder, continues on with the Eiffel Tower and the Witch's Hat, and ends with Tarzan's Underwear. I get laughs from the primary school set, every time. Of course, then they want to tell me all of their underwear jokes....

germandolls said...

That also explains why Mr. Greenspans theory is so popular. Even big boys enjoy potty humor quite a bit...

Lovealittle said...

This is just brilliant :)

My favourite storybook is Pants by Nick Sharratt.

I did make a large pair of Etsy pants for Etsy week a while back ;)(it's on my flickrstream....shhh)

Anonymous said...

My favorite thing about my dolls growing up were the little cloth diapers my grandmother made. I remember carrying a little diaper bag full of them.

germandolls said...

Do you have pictures of those diapers and yourself carrying them around, Robin? What a wonderful way to remember your grandma. Hope you still have some of the things she made for you!