Comments on: Stereotyping Scots as Cheap

By: Scovington1

Scovington1 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:47:00 +0000

I grew up aware of this and I’m 46. My granddad on my mother’s side was from Edinburgh. But that’s not why I remember it from an early age. Rather, there was a grocery store where I grew up called Ream’s and the sign had a Scotsman holding a purse with coins in it. Later as I grew older, I realized the significance…

By: mizunogirl

mizunogirl — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:31:00 +0000

Interestingly, being of scots heritage, I know that stereotype well, and at 40 I am not that old. I knew it growing up, as do most of my friends. It may depend on the society you grow up in. I grew up in a heavily Germanic and Scots-Irish community, so the stereo type was well known, but we knew nothing say about Hispanics being overly dramatic, etc because frankly, there were no hispanic people in our lives. Now, my sister teaches in a mostly Latino neighbourhood and she tells me all sorts of stereotypes between the Puerto Ricans and the Dominicans. It seems wherever someone is, they work to define and plce into a niche anyone different than them.

By: Hungry in America « Mizunogirl's Blog

Hungry in America « Mizunogirl's Blog — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:17:21 +0000

[...] I do not usually buy bunches of canned veggies, I am still pretty cheap. I think for food banks those microwaveable cups of mac and cheese, soup, and spaghettios are [...]

By: Fall 2011 – Conversation 4 – Week 4 (Sept 19th) – Stereotypes « Craig's ESL Blog

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 05:42:15 +0000

[...] stereotyping Scots [...]

By: TD

TD — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:03:49 +0000

Well said Mairi. I always assumed I might be jewish or indian, so this clarifies things nicely.

By: Mairi MacLachlan Dilmuth

Mairi MacLachlan Dilmuth — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:32:09 +0000

We Scots could be called thrifty because we don’t give in to keeping up with the Jones. We are not always wealthy and tend to hold on to what we have until it is of no use and then we will find another use for it. Homes are passed down to children as Americans would family heirlooms. My da always said “waste not want not” and “a penny saved is a penny earned” because it takes some work to save your pennies. He also taught me that I can have anything I am willing to work for. After a while of working hard you may discover that what you think you want is not worth the work or it just isn’t important to you as you may have thought.

By: Neill McKay

Neill McKay — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:15:15 +0000

I’ve been aware of the frugality or “cheapness” since coming to this country from Scotland as a young lad. I remember Scot (implyimg cheap) gas and the moths coming out of a Scotsman’s purse. But, my mother was what I would call “thrifty” and my father was not cheap by any stretch of the imagination! In fact, the reason I came to this site is to try to find out why this stereotype still exists today!

Neill McKay, St. Augustine, FL (3/2/2010)

By: Billy Ballbag

Billy Ballbag — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:16:01 +0000

I believe we Scots have the reputation for frugality arising from the distrust of English banks. I have no references to back this up, but the story I have heard is that the Scots would rather keep their money on them than deposit it in the English banks after the Unification. Wealth was kept in items of adornment, such as precious metals and jewels on the sporran, belt, sgian dhubh etc.

By: Pearl

Pearl — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:20:39 +0000

In my 30s and in central Canada Scottish as frugal is ubiquitous. English, Irish, Scottish divisions are alive, all stereotypes intact. St. Patrick’s day helps keep alive the Irish are lazy and drunk stereotype.

By: My Black Brick » Archives » Studebaker Scotsman

My Black Brick » Archives » Studebaker Scotsman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:57:53 +0000

[...] had never heard of the stereotype of Scotsmen being frugal and cheap until I saw this post on Sociological Images. It was well known enough in the 1950s, however, that Studebaker made a line [...]

By: Marta

Marta — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:38:44 +0000

I am 31 and Italian, and in my childhood and teens jokes about thrift Scots were commonplace.

On the other hand, it was (it still is) normal to think that Scots and English people (not to speak of Welsh people) are the same thing. But only the Scots are the “thrift ones”.

By: Doro

Doro — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:06:00 +0000

@ finefin: Yes, it is a very common stereotype here, and I have no idea where it comes from (after all, there aren’t that many Scots in Germany). I think it has a lot to do with Scrooge McDuck, at least that’s how I learned it.

And the M(a)c as the first part of a store name to indicate cheapness is getting more and more popular. McClean (http://www.mcclean.ch/html/index.html) … *shudders* I blame it on this stereotype and McDonalds.

By: Kelle

Kelle — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:48:47 +0000

I’ve got two sets of Scottish grandparents, both poor working class in background – they grew up in the slums of Glasgow and a fairly isolated rural area.

My grandmothers in particular were extremely proud of being canny – that is, being cleverly thrifty. “Make do and mend”, as the WWII UK slogan went. They didn’t really have a choice, I guess. It wasn’t about being penny-pinching or mean. You could learn to manage well what little money and resources you had, or slide further into poverty.

By: finefin

finefin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:12:20 +0000

the stereotype of the penny pinching scottish man is quite common in germany (btw. swabians are said to be cheap, too)

– we have a 1€-warehousing chain here called Mac Geiz,

they don’t even have a real domainname: http://212.227.100.199/
Typically scottish….

By: depresso

depresso — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:17:09 +0000

It’s a tired old thing that’s still wheeled out from time to time, despite Scots actually being quite generous in my experience!

However, it did give Billy Connolly a good laugh when he described his father as being ‘so tight the 50p he dropped hit him on the back of the neck as he bent to pick it up’.