--- description: "Hipster culture is not a counterculture. On the contrary, the neighborhood organization of hipsters—their tight-knit colonies of similar-looking, slouching people—represents not hostility to authority (as... title: Cheapskate Wisdom … About How Silly It Is to Buy into ‘Anti-Consumer’ Hipster Culture image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) # Cheapskate Wisdom … About How Silly It Is to Buy into 'Anti-Consumer' Hipster Culture by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Oct 26, 2010 12:31 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Oct 26, 2010 12:31 PM CUT “Hipster culture is not a counterculture. On the contrary, the neighborhood organization of hipsters—their tight-knit colonies of similar-looking, slouching people—represents not hostility to authority (as among punks or hippies) but a superior community of status where the game of knowing-in-advance can be played with maximum refinement. The hipster is a savant at picking up the tiny changes of rapidly cycling consumer distinction.” more From this week’s New York mag story [“What Was the Hipster?”](http://nymag.com/news/features/69129/ "undefined") The hipster, then, is not taking an anti-consumer stance, but is more of a _hyper_ consumer—one who constantly monitors and tweaks what it is he wears, drinks, eats, and buys. Read more: [Cheapskate Wisdom … About Fashion”](http://money.blogs.time.com/2010/08/03/cheapskate-wisdom-about-fashion/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7110631/cheapskate-wisdom-about-how-silly-it-is-to-buy-into-anti-consumer-hipster-culture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7110631/cheapskate-wisdom-about-how-silly-it-is-to-buy-into-anti-consumer-hipster-culture/"},"headline":"Cheapskate Wisdom … About How Silly It Is to Buy into 'Anti-Consumer' Hipster Culture","datePublished":"2010-10-26T12:31:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T03:50:14.285Z","description":"\"Hipster culture is not a counterculture. On the contrary, the neighborhood organization of hipsters—their tight-knit colonies of similar-looking, slouching people—represents not hostility to authority (as...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7110631/cheapskate-wisdom-about-how-silly-it-is-to-buy-into-anti-consumer-hipster-culture/","keywords":["fashion","Hipster","Clothes"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7110631/cheapskate-wisdom-about-how-silly-it-is-to-buy-into-anti-consumer-hipster-culture/","name":"Cheapskate Wisdom … About How Silly It Is to Buy into 'Anti-Consumer' Hipster Culture"}}]}] ```