Spending on Consumer Luxury Items Down
November 7, 2008 by Miranda Marquit
Filed under Finance
Americans are finally slowing down in the consumer spending department. The Wall Street Journal reported that luxury sales dropped 20% in October. But that’s not all; other types of consumer goods aren’t being bought at staggering rates, either. There really is a recession diet out there. Here are some of the other categories of consumer spending see a drop:
- Furniture
- Electronics
- Appliances
- Clothing (men and women)
- Footwear
It appears that the economic slowdown is really affecting spending right now. For the most part, we’ve mostly cut back on eating out and we’ve decided to spend less on gifts for each other this year. And our impulse spending has been minimized.
We are looking for ways to cut back, since one never knows what’s going to happen, and we want a cushion — just in case. Between the nature of my freelance writing job, and the fact that my husband’s salary is paid through funding at the school (university budgets are being cut all over), we could see an income drop.
It’s always better to be prepared.
Are you cutting back on spending? Are you preparing for possible economic difficulties?
I think this might be market-specific, since in Toronto there are all kinds of evidentiary indicators that spending on luxury items remains steady as it’s really the folk at the “bottom” that are feeling the pinch the worst right now…
You’re probably right. Different markets and different trends. It just appears that the economic times are starting to catch up with those at the “top” here in the U.S. Although I wonder if super-items are dropping off.
I’ve seen heavy traffic (and spending) in the Coach and Starbucks stores I’ve been to between Philly and DC, but the financials reported by both companies in the past week have been terrible! They aren’t even the most pricey of the luxury stores. Definitely a lot of regional influence.
I think you are right; it does depend on market. Apparently Philly and DC can’t make up for the rest of the country! Anyway, I just wrote today about how our local organic market is closing its doors since sales have been dropping since about June, when the economic squeeze really started causing people to stop buying there.
I’m sure it does depend on the market – and even though you see heavy traffic in a particular store, it still doesn’t mean they are getting the same amount of heavy traffic they once did. I think we will see a dramatic decrease this year in holiday consumer spending than previous years.
Nail on the head. Thanks for weighing in, Luxury Fun~