Family's income


Their house was beautiful. Their wigs were beautiful. Their clothes were beautiful.

From where did they get the money to support such a lifestyle?

(It seems highly unlikely that the dress shop was that lucrative.)

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How is it unlikely? Clearly the customer base was middle income or higher. The clothes also could have been expensive regardless of how they looked. Even today something as plain as a white cotton tee shirt can be found for as little as $5 and as much as $600. Now a $5 shirt could be of good quality or so-so but who needs to spend $600 for one? Yet people do. Point is her shop could do very well with whatever merchandise she sells.

You have the right to remain silent because whatever you say will probably be stupid anyway!

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Agree to disagree.

"Clearly the customer base was middle income or higher." Maybe I missed something, but how was this made clear?

I only remember seeing one dress-shop scene, and there appeared to be MAYBE one customer in the store. If we're to accept the shop is a money maker, then the director should have shown us customers aplenty spending money. (If there were other scenes showing this then I humbly concede to your explanation.)



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Mom was in show business too. Utilizing her money wisely could explain it.

Don't threaten me, Al! You're out of shape, I'll kick your arse. -Lisa Weird Science

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Ummmm, it seemed more than obvious that show business was not good to Mom - .
hence her very negative response to her daughters' interest in it.

Not once did they indicate Mom was a successful singer.


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Plothole then. No explanation can be had for you...

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No intelligent, logical explanation for me. Or anyone else.

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Speak for yourself, that boutique was upscale as the neighborhood, as the church & church goers, etc. I took it she was the go to for women's fashions & moved on to the main focus of the film.

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yeah agreed. she could have been the only shop in town that sold nice women wear. also, didn't she work for the church too? Sparkle was able to move out because she saved up all the money she earned from all of those performances. don't tell me they appeared on tv, opening for aretha franklin for free.

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The mother owned a shop and yes even in the '60s a decent shop brought in some nice change. They were not living in a Mansion wearing 1,000 dresses. They were middle class. Their mother was a singer turned shop owner.

Clark's destiny = Superman, Lex Luthor & Lois Lane.

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As others have said, it's highly believable the shop made a decent amount of money. Also, I assumed the mom didn't exactly spend money wisely. I just assumed that from the dialogue about them having a colored TV set.

If you're not responding to me, "reply" to the post you're responding to. kthanks.

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In a montage, Stix is shown shooting pool for the performance dresses. Instead of "baby needs a new pair of shoes", you hear him saying "gotta get three pretty dresses".

The mom's dress shop did look much bigger thn a boutique so they were doing quite well from the looks of the type of inventory she had (but not well enough to completely pay for Dee's college education). The bigger question would be, how could Sparkle afford to get an apartment when it was never shown she had a job as she went to the music producer AFTER she moved out and got the apartment.

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I assume she used the money from the gigs to get the apartment, plus Sara asked her about her new job when she stopped by to drop off the flyer. It’s the 60s so I’m sure an apartment didn’t cost an arm and a leg

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As I watched the scenes in their home I was also thinking there was a disconnect between their house and their supposed situation. I'm a Detroiter and Motown real estate has never been particularly expensive. Now, of course, it's a joke. You can get a 2000 sq ft home in the inner city for $50K. But back during the Motown days things were more market value. But still that meant cheap in Detroit, especially for working middle class black families. Remember, this wasn't Chicago, NYC, etc. We're talking Detroit and there were tons of nice middle class black homes during that time.

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Clothing shops are very profitable. One of the highest in gross profit. Gross profits can range from 80% to a minimum of 50% based on cost of merchandise. For example a $100 dress may only cost the retailer $30 for a gross profit of $70. Why do you think they can still make money on half price sales? Mall based retailers have a rougher time because of the high rent and have to depend more on volume sales and 5-10% net profit.

************************************
My favorite: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

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Affluent black neighborhoods existed back then. The church scenes are a strong example of that.

"It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves."

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