Ageless Marketing has some interesting observations
about why high-end stuff did so well last
holiday season. If luxury goods prospered partially due to shifting
demographics, then this spells more trouble for the discounters. The
effect of rising energy costs on their less-affluent customers may be
masking another key factor.
Best quote:
"No one gets up in one morning and exclaims, “I’m tired of being middle class.” Buying luxury doesn’t elevate a person from middle class to upper class placement. But growing older does turn many a person into more of a luxury-buying consumer.
With most adults now in the second half of life (130 million 40 and older adults to 86 million 18-39-year-olds) buying behavior has become less anchored to quantitative foundations and more deeply rooted in qualitative foundations. The “New customer Majority” has replaced the buying ethos of “more” with the more discrimination buying ethos of “better or best”."
I've been so focused on why the low end did poorly that I failed to
look at why the high end did so well. It will be interesting to see how
Wal-Mart and others react to this. No one can afford to lose the
Boomers.