Americans believe they can bargain hunt to maintain lifestyle

[midnight armadillo]

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2006/08/americans_belie.html

Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Americans believe they can bargain hunt to maintain lifestyle

Half the country believes that swelling gasoline prices aren't anywhere near done rising yet, according to a new survey from the Boston Consulting Group.

Forty-eight percent of the adults who responded to the study said they believe gas could hit $5.50 per gallon on average. That's caused three quarters of Americans to cut back on their spending or change their habits recently, the study said.

But that doesn't mean the country is ready to abandon its consumerism completely: another three-quarters of the survey's respondents said they're still confident they can maintain their current lifestyle, even with gas prices skyrocketing. That's because, the research said, 82 percent of them believe they're great bargain hunters who can find the cheapest price for an item when they need or want something new.

[MissB]

1. Fools. Imagine empty store shelves.

Kinda hard to do, isn't it?

Fools.

[rusty charly]

2. and then "you get what you pay for"

kicks in

[napi21]

3. That's a great philosophy, but it's wrong.

I'm a great bargain hunter too! What the people who are part of that 75% aren't recognizing is that there will no longer be the bargains they're used to available!

NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING is untouched by the increased cost of shipping, gas powered furnaces, gas that powers the generaters to make electricity, down to the increased cost of something as silly as mowing your lawn!

NO Company is exempt! Walmart has to pay the increased shippig prices the same as everyone else!

But, that's OK, they'll find out soon enough!

[Democrats_win]

4. Before gas gouging, people skimped so they could spend on luxury.

The middle class was buying at cheapo stores so they could spend more on high quality items. They'd buy cheapo kleenex at Target and then use the money to save, over a period of time, to go out to a nicer restaurant or purchase something really nice that only rich people could afford.

There were numerous articles about this several years ago. Now things have come full circle, they must give up luxury, settle on cheapo so they can buy gas.

[KoKo]

5. Well...if one moves down from Target, through WalMart...there's always

the "Dollar General" stores. I've seen some good untilitarian stuff there and some of their clothes are from the same Chinese, Malaysian and Indian factories...it's just the label is different.

One can always keep trading down...and there's great stuff at the Thrift Shops that are bulging with goods from the "throw away culture."

There's alot of room to go down. The Wall Street Crowd knows us all because they use DATA MINING...and know every single thing "WE CONSUMERS" buy, think and dream about...:-( Maybe that's why they are so confident.

[adriennui]

6. buying cheap isn't a bargain

instead of cutting down on consumption, people would rather buy low quality crap which probably increases our trade deficit.

[NJCher]

7. there will be opportunities

A lot of things will change. I'm hoping people will turn to home vegetable gardens for produce. One of the things I'd like to do is help people set up their back yards (or even front yards!) to grow produce.

There is even a gardening practice called "four seasons gardening." People really can grow produce most months of the year.




Cher