I love reading different ways of subverting the so called norm.
Dumpster Divers Go Mainstream In Thrifty Germany:
“It’s the culture here in Germany,” says Dora Fecske, a Frankfurt businesswoman. “Why trash something if it’s still good?” She recently found a large wooden dining table in the street and carried it several blocks to her home with help from friends.
Ms. Fecske’s furniture foraging is the ultimate expression of one of Germany’s favorite pastimes: saving money. Even when Germans do spend it (they need to eat, after all), they aren’t looking to pay full price. Flea markets pull big crowds every weekend. Used goods are so popular that Germany is eBay’s biggest market outside the U.S.: Surfing the site accounts for nearly a fifth of the time Germans spend online.
Regular retail stores have a tough time. No-frills discounters such as Aldi dominate the supermarket sector. Even Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was too upscale for Germans: The U.S. giant finally gave up on the country last year, after failing to make a euro cent.
To survive, stores have to appeal to Germans’ sharp eye for a discount. Electronics retailer Saturn has for years lured customers with the slogan “Stingy is Sexy.”
The trend is stubborn, with deep roots in history. Germans save their money partly because war and economic disasters during the last century make them think the future will bring more rainy days.
Today, even though the German economy is growing solidly and unemployment is falling, consumer spending is in the doldrums.
Freegans are scavengers of the developed world, living off consumer waste in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet, and to distance themselves from what they see as out-of-control consumerism. They forage through supermarket trash and eat the slightly bruised produce or just-expired canned goods that are routinely thrown out, and negotiate gifts of surplus food from sympathetic stores and restaurants.
They dress in castoff clothes and furnish their homes with items found on the street; at freecycle.org, where users post unwanted items; and at so-called freemeets, flea markets where no money is exchanged. Some claim to hold themselves to rigorous standards. “If a person chooses to live an ethical lifestyle it’s not enough to be vegan, they need to absent themselves from capitalism,” said Adam Weissman, 29, who started freegan.info four years ago and is the movement’s de facto spokesman.
