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Interesting points in this Quartz article: https://qz.com/1631310/us-consumer-spending-has-remained-the-same-with-one-exception/
- In 1987 US shoppers devoted about 5% of their discretionary spending to clothes. In 2017 it was about 2%.....What’s driving the decrease, though, isn’t consumers buying less clothing: Deloitte notes that the number of clothing items US shoppers are purchasing grew consistently over the period studied. Rather, clothes are getting cheaper because of pressure from “market forces,” the firm says.
- In its surveys, Deloitte asked shoppers their reasons for choosing to shop at a retailer. Price was the most common response...Next to last on the list was “alignment with core values.”
- As Deloitte noted in a previous report, retail is polarizing toward the high and low ends just as the same happens in American incomes and the middle class shrinks.
I have a lot of contacts in Home Decor accessories. They have commented for the last 5+ years that they were able to continue to move production from one country to another to find cheaper costs from the late 80's until now. There was always another country where they could have a product like kitchen towels made cheaper, especially to sell to the mass and big box retailers. They say now that there really aren't any new options left. So we have probably seen a halt in downward pricing, at least in things related to fabrics for home or apparel in mass market retail.