We are Sunday December 26th. The Christmas dinner barely digested, the gifts just unwrapped, some have already sold them on the Internet, everyone is free to think what he wants, but one thing is certain, the second-hand market is doing well.
franceinfo: Today, the opportunity is no longer reserved only for those who do not have a lot of money and who are even struggling to make ends meet. Has it always been so trendy for the occasion?
Jean Viard: No ! So it depends why. Occasionally, if you were buying an old house, it was better than a new house. There, it was more chic, I would say in a way. After the second-hand market, when I was young, it was in immigrant neighborhoods, moreover, when we were students, we went to immigrant neighborhoods in Marseille, we went to buy our jeans, because it was the occasion of popular circles.
So, it still exists, you have to be careful, but indeed, there has developed an opportunity, I was going to say anti-consumption, where in the end, it has become elegant, to say: this jacket, it has already been worn. before me, that is to say the idea that someone has lived in the garment, that this garment has therefore experienced loves, crises, rain, sun … Basically, it’s almost like if that was a plus.
It’s stylish ?
Yes I think. It’s like the low cost, or the Dacia. These vehicles are more suitable for those who have no money, but then you have people who travel a lot at low cost because it allows them to travel a lot more often. The Dacias are the same. There are doctors who drive Dacia cars because that’s a way of saying me, you know, consumption is not my thing. All this is becoming signs in some circles, but let’s be careful that the heart of the process is obviously disadvantaged people, but there is a fashion.
It’s linked to organic. It’s linked to a whole society that seeks to consume less, and that is also visible, if you will. It is a staging at the bottom of values, of the idea that consumption, there is a limit. And you know, just one thing about clothing, I was elected local, and so we do tenders for the little sidewalk cabins to pick up the used clothing. In fact, there are calls for tenders. It brings money to communities. We rent the space. Emmaüs is one of the major carriers of recovery.
The relay too?
The relay etc … there are totally private companies, and in fact, nothing is lost in the clothing, because there is a part which is put back into circulation, with us in Europe, a part which dresses the Africa, and the rest is twine. And so, it’s better than the pig, in a way 100% is usable.
As you said, it is also necessarily somewhat related to the environment. But does that mean the end of a society of accumulation because we have the impression that we are buying cheaper and suddenly, we may not be buying more?
You effectively have the development of a mini-consumer society, including with chains like Lidl, etc. where we are melting, there, we will seek to have less choice, less cost, and that will correspond to a certain population. And then you have people who will choose to go to Lidl because they prefer to travel by plane, but it’s marginal.
On the other hand, what is true is that there are social practices, the heart of society is expanding. This is where there is organic, the opportunity. Look at the hundreds of thousands of people leaving the big cities, they are going to rent in smaller, cheaper towns. It’s also a way of saying after all, are we going to put so much money into our housing?
I believe it is a fundamental movement of a society. But we are culturally integrated into this culture of protection, economy of means and a new relationship with nature. And that is interesting. And the pandemic has accelerated it.
And it is becoming so trendy that some major car brands are even starting to use it. We think of Renault …
But Renault is going to build a factory that will take back 100,000 cars a year. It is true that it is absurd when a car is worn out to throw it away, because in a way you can fix it. There are places that are weakened, of course. But professionals know it. So there, they are creating factories now to re-equip cars, to get them started again.
We are also increasingly transforming vehicles into electric. And so, you can go to places where your gasoline car will be changed. We are going to remove the engine, put an electric motor, it’s not that expensive, it’s 5 to 10,000 euros on small cars. This is certainly also a niche of the future for small urban cars.