Sometimes it's easy to see a change in generational values and attitudes. Who could confuse the ever-so-upright and simple Cunningham family from "Happy Days" with the free love, peace first activists of the '60s? It's more difficult to chart the flow and ebb of our generation's standards and principles. Without the flapping lapels and bell bottoms as dead giveaways, the last decade or so is not so readily characterized, and has had a more static nature.

Or has it? Even the last four years have produced some amazing ironies and turnabouts. We've moved, for the most part, from Donald Trump and lavish expenditures on luxury items to a middle class mania and an inflated tax on the very yachts that so entranced us before. From Leona Helmsley and plush hotels to belt-tightening, expense-trimming tactics. John Sununu, once touted for his intellect, was pushed from his position for abusing the perks allowed him.

Perhaps nowhere is this shift more apparent than in the changing fortunes of the K-Mart and Wal-Mart chains. Remember the movie "Rainman," popular in 1988? If you saw it, a catch phrase of the movie is almost certainly burned in your mind, as it is mine: "K-Mart sucks."

Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), incredibly frustrated with his autistic brother, who has been insisting upon buying his new boxer shorts at the same branch of the chain store as he has for years, snaps out, "K-Mart sucks."

That was enough to draw laughter in my movie theater, but brother Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), the autistic savant, really stole the show. As he prepares to board the bus that will take him back to his institution, Raymond reveals how much he has absorbed from the time spent with his brother. He says blandly, "K-Mart sucks."

Even Raymond, so far removed from everyday reality that he can't grasp the concept of money and material value, has somehow latched onto this universal constant. Charlie has indeed imparted something to his brother during their time together.

In a sense, that statement was a very accurate reflection of K-Mart's position in the mid-'80s -- its stock was plummeting. But the fact that such a line was incorporated into a popular movie says much more about the times and societal values than the stock market. No one wanted to shop in a chain like K-Mart in the '80s; its aisles were an embarrassing expanse of unattractively displayed discount goods and clothing. You could live from birth to death within the confines of K-Mart and lack nothing -- no boutique specialization there.

I wonder what the catch phrase, "K-Mart sucks" did to the children whose parents outfitted them from the stores. Charlie and Raymond pointed a finger at discount chains, mocking them and, implicitly, K-Mart customers.

Discount stores are having the last laugh, though. In the face of a recession that is causing many department stores to fold, K-Mart and its successor in the market, Wal-Mart, flourish. K-Mart's second quarter profits were up 10 percent last year, and managers were considering revamping the stores' layout to include such innovations as a radar-like system to track customers so that clerks could be sent to staff the busiest areas without delay. While other chains scaled down, K-Mart was beefing up for an anticipated increase in business.

Similarly, Wal-Mart, the new forerunner in discount chains, has shown an almost exponential rise in profits. 1991 saw a 35 percent growth in business over the year before.

With the recession's economic stagnation, bargain hunting is suddenly the thing to do, as these figures reflect. Job security is no longer a given, no matter what the color of your collar, and no one apologizes now for thrift. Enter Wal-Mart and K-Mart, while specialty stores exit, stage right.

You can see reflections of this new attitude and frugality everywhere -- from the Subway sandwich commercials promoting old-time value to the fears of graduating seniors suddenly scared because job openings just aren't as easy to find. There are no guarantees, apparently. I never had any problem finding temporary work, myself, until this Christmas; I applied to a broad range of jobs, and heard nothing.

It's pathetic, really, that it took an economic problem affecting all of our socioeconomic sectors to justify the existence of discount stores and frugality. And I find the insta-work ethic and national pride strange; take a recession and middle class America, add water, and stir.

While Wal-Mart may never be as aesthetically appealing as the medley of stores it is supplanting, I hope such chains, and the ethic they espouse, continue. Maybe our generation can make a much-needed move from the economic snobbery and gross materialism of the '80s to a more balanced and tolerant perspective in the '90s. We wouldn't (thankfully) need polyester plaid, or a change in fashion, to make the distinction -- just a little respect for the necessity and reality of budgeting, no matter what your salary. And we can leave such derogatory statements as "K-Mart sucks" as testimony to days and values gone by.