« Croc Attack!!! | Main | Does Made in Canada Matter? »
Will Quality Make a Comeback
Is a new breed of consumer coming? The Saturday edition of The Toronto Star featured an article on how consumerism will change as baby boomers retire and the new generation of shoppers comes to the fore.
The article, "Splurging could be passé" by reporter David Graham, looks at the findings presented in The Leisure Economy: How Changing Demographics, Economics and Generational Attitudes Will Reshape Our Lives and Our Industries by Toronto-based economist Linda Nazareth.
In the article Graham explains Nazareth's central idea: That the next generation of consumers--Slackers, Gen X and Gen Y -- will value free time more than material possessions. As a result, he writes, a new parsimony will be seen in the retail world. He explains that this new frugality will result in a renewed interest in quality goods; that "well-made, reasonably-priced goods will replace merchandise at both ends of the cost spectrum. Quality merchandise will fare better than cheap and disposable. It will also perform better than high-priced, high-fashion luxury goods."
This idea of quality making a comeback was a theme I saw explored at the 2007 edition of Tendence, Messe Frankfurt's autumn consumer goods show. As I wrote in my review of the show (Innovation and Sustainability, September-October 2007) Amsterdam-based designer Satyendra Pakhalé created a Personal Shopper display that celebrated quality and design sustainability over the current "culture of consumption." It'll be interesting to see if this new wave of shoppers really will embrace conservation and put quality ahead of quantity.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://bloggt.gifts-and-tablewares.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/28
Lori Smith, , Editor-in-Chief
Lori Smith is the editor of Gifts and Tablewares, Canada's premiere gifts and tablewares magazine. Written for retailers of gifts, tablewares, housewares, stationery and home furnishing accessories, its objective is to help readers increase their sales and run their businesses more profitably by providing information on new products, merchandising, small business management, customer service, consumer behavior and industry news. The magazine is published six times a year by BIG Magazines, LP, a leading Canadian information company.
Search
About
This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on February 11, 2008 4:03 PM.
The previous post in this blog was Croc Attack!!!.
The next post in this blog is Does Made in Canada Matter? .
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.