Market Survey

"For one answer to the nation's most pressing economic question -- when will the recession end? -- just take a peek inside the American man's underwear drawer.

There may be some new pairs there, judging by recent reports from retailers and analysts, and that could mean better days ahead for everyone.

Here's the theory, briefly: Sales of men's underwear typically are stable because they rank as a necessity. But during times of severe financial strain, men will try to stretch the time between buying new pairs, causing underwear sales to dip."

The Washington Post

The whole matter could be seen in a totally different way.
In the last decades we were flooded with tons of cheap products from China.
And we still are.
You can fill your socks drawer with 50 brand new pair, in assorted colors, for Euro 9.99.
You go on eBay and you can have a life supply for that amount.
But we should be a little more accurate with words, giving them the right meaning.
Here we are talking of "what looks like a year supply" but in reality it isn’t.
Unless you wear the same for one week without washing and on Monday morning you use a new pair...
Because at the first good wash they will come out in an unusable shape.
If you are lucky you will just loose the elastic, and if you do not feel uncomfortable to have the upper part close to the feet, you can eventually still wear them for one more week.
If you have no hole with the first washing, you certainly will with the second and that will mean you HAVE to use a new pair.

So, it is true that we tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over, but usually, the first reaction should be buying five new pairs at the price of Euro 5 each and forget about socks for some time.
Advantages:
1) You won’t need extra space.
2) You will have comfortable and good looking socks.
3) You will be able to change them and wash them as often as you like
4) It will look that the growth in sales of men's socks slows as the recession takes hold.

We are going into a new market phase, in which quality will outnumber quantity.
And I am also talking about life quality...