The Rich Are Shopping Much More Like the Middle Class, Thanks to Recession.
Posted: June 7th, 2011 | Author: Joe | Filed under: spending | Tags: Infographic, spending | 1 Comment »According to the Wall Street Journal, the rich are changing the way they think about shopping and spending money. Instead of simply buying items based on brand name, they are considering the “price per wear” first.
In one Harrison Group survey, done in the first quarter of 2011, consumers with an income of $275,000 were 7% more likely to wait for items to go on sale than they were in 2010 – 38% in 2011 compared with 31% in 2010.
“What’s showing up in the latest research is a broad-based caution — a sudden aversion to salespeople, a tepid response to ads focused on brand images, and a new interest in price-shopping.”
It seems “the rich” are shopping more like most Americans these days, thanks to the recession.
Here’s an infographic of the Harrison Group survey:
Of course, affluent consumers can’t just be like average consumers because, well that would make them average. So they’ve coined a special term to describe their thriftier approach in a more stylish way: recessionista.
[...] The wealthy get rich by maximizing their return on investment. They may still spend big bucks on discretionary items, but they view those purchases as investments, not mere expenses. They are more apt to maximize quality and value, regardless of price. But that’s not the same as buying expensive name-brand merchandise for the sake of owning expensive name-brand merchandise. This has especially been true of the rich during the recession. [...]