I am a thrifty shopper. From accessories to footwear, I am always looking for a bargain. Granted, at times I will indulge in a couple of key one-of-a-kind pieces ($100 Robert Cary-Williams shotgun tee; $300 Chanel over-sized aviators; or $160 pair of Paige Premium Denim or True Religion jeans) if I feel that they add to the sum of my collected wardrobe. Generally though, I head straight to the back of any store, scouring the racks for the latest markdowns. But since moving to New York in mid-2005, I realized that such racks are dwindling, and being the loyal H&M customer that I have developed into, I noticed that even the huge cheap chic retailer’s racks are minimal, almost non-existent.

In a Newsweek article titled, A New Fashion Frontier, there’s a fashion phenomenon hitting the US retail market, which stems from the emergence of European clothing retailers aptly titled: Fast Fashion. This concept explained how H&M roped me in and made me come in consistently:

Unlike the average retailer, H&M never overstocks, even on best sellers, to avoid clearance sales. The result: many customers come in weekly or even daily to check out the latest items, rather than monthly…in Europe, where the concept [fast fashion] began, it's already big business…So far in the United States, however, fast fashion remains a niche…But with both H&M and its Spanish rival, Zara, moving rapidly into the U.S. market, big American players from the Gap to WalMart…are imitating elements of it...

One standout characteristic that is being adopted by bigger US retailers like the Gap, Walmart, and Target is to “turn their inventory much faster than the average four to five times a year…translates into fewer markdowns…That means higher profit margins.

Also, not only will thrifty, trend-conscious shoppers be affected with the lack of racks dedicated to markdowns, but popular countries of outsourcing and production will be too. With fast fashion, there will be a trend of production closer to home for speedier delivery resulting in higher profit margins:

That could have a dramatic effect on the global supply chain, in particular by shifting production for the U.S. retail market from China to less distant sites, like Mexico, in order to cut delivery times… This does not, however, signal a significant revival of America's textile industry...The labor costs in the United States are simply too high...So any gains in textile jobs are likely to come across the border.

In the end, it comes down to the mentality shift of the consumer, which has already made me adapt, and resulted in me, spending more money on clothing due to the abundance and variety of trends offered. With fast-fashion, consumers, like myself, are being trained to shop differently. The article says, “It's all about turning inventory faster…The U.S. customer has been trained to wait for sales, and the only way you can change that is by getting new products in the stores more frequently."