The disappearing middle class is challenging many major American brands.

[riversedge]

Family dollar, General dollar. Dollar tree???



http://www.businessinsider.com/the-disappearing-middle-class-is-threatening-major-retailers-2015-10

The disappearing middle class is threatening American mega brands


The disappearing middle class is challenging many major American brands.

......................

Upper-income consumers are buying more premium treats, while lower-income individuals are purchasing discounted chocolates, he said. Hershey's has been losing market share, as a result.

"While overall consumer confidence is trending up, lower income consumers continue to be fragile as income and wage growth has been minimal," he said. "Higher income and more confident consumers are driving premium growth, while cost-conscious consumers are driving the value segment."
................................


Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison also recently identified "a shrinking middle class in developed markets" as one of four "seismic" shifts that are impacting her company.
...........................

Even Walmart, which is known for its cheap prices, is tailoring its business strategy to the expectation that growth will come from upper-income households in the years ahead.

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The share of households in the middle tier of income earners has fallen to 43% from 55% since the 1970s, according to The New York Times.

And those households in the middle tier haven't gotten a raise since 1999...................

[leveymg]

1. I predict a growth forecast for a new brand of American department stores: Found & Scavenged.

Crate & Barrel, move over. Everything already broken in.

[Warpy]

3. That already exists here

This town is chockablock with thrift shops and they're all pretty good ones.

Yard sales suck unless you need baby clothes.

[PADemD]

7. Thrift shops?

There are people in our area who drive around the night before garbage day to pick what's been left at the curb.

[Warpy]

8. Don't laugh, that's how I furnished my first apartments in Boston

I've still got a couple of lamps I fished out of the garbage and rewired.

[PADemD]

15. Years ago, there was an HGTV show that I really enjoyed.

It was called Decorating Cents: Trash to Treasure. with Robb Whitleff. He would take a piece of junk and turn it into beautiful artwork or a functional piece of furniture.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. We have some people that do that

in my neighborhood but they just go thru the recycles. They drive an Accura.

I think it's really against the law to take stuff from the bins as they belong to the city once you put them out there.

[Eleanors38]

12. It's been used thrift shops and garbage guerrilla for me. Appliances, furniture: all curb side

Re-claims and used shops. Just gotma bunch of AC insulation from a construction refuge pile to use in the house. Got a 20" fan which was thrown out after a flood; cleaned up & works fine. Last five guns are used or giveaways. I'm off the "value" circuit and anything else for good!

[redwitch]

2. I'm shocked! Shocked I tell ya!

Dear Corporations: We can't afford to buy your stuff anymore. So sorry!

I am only surprised it hasn't occurred to them sooner.

People who who work full time and still need food stamps won't be shopping major brands.

The race to the bottom continues.

It's really sickening isn't it?

[hifiguy]

11. Capitalism, particularly when unregulated,

inevitably and quickly devolves into fascism.

And every president of the last 35 years shares in the responsibility for it happening. EVERY ONE.

[hobbit709]

4. you couldn't pay me to eat that crap Hershey's calls chocolate.

Maybe they're losing market share because it's a garbage product.

[Wilms]

5. That's why I'm voting for Bernie.

It's why you should, too.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. We have been yelling about this for years.

One positive is with the UAW and their new contracts. Remember what Henry Ford said,my workers are my best customer. Did a couple of unscientific studies three years ago,did a part time stint at a DIY Store,and when Corporate Thieves decided to jack the Share Price so Wall Street would love them,well you guess how that worked on the Local level,all Part Timers hours cut by forty percent,all full timers lost two hours a week or were sent how if the customer count took a hit. Well,Employee Dollar Purchase headed South big time. Enough to make Managers go into pound Salt up your ass mode. People were walked out the door for the dumbest violations like clocking in one minute to early. Not clocking out within the four minute time allowed after your shift ended. But,hey they got the stock price up and increased the dividend,but lost their extra dollar sales.

[hifiguy]

10. Imagine that!

Let the corporatists and oligarchs gut the middle class and THIS happens?

Whoda thunk it?



By all means, let's vote for MORE MORE MORE of what we have been getting for the last 35 years.

[Eleanors38]

13. "Consumer Bifurcation?" BWAH-HA-HA!

[Fumesucker]

14. Notice the focus of the article is not on how a disappearing middle class is bad intrinsically

But rather how it's a "challenge" to businesses...

[SleeplessinSoCal]

16. Goodbye Hershey's Kisses?

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/56317721e4b0c66bae5afcd2?utm_hp_ref=tw

[smirkymonkey]

17. +1000

[randomelement]

18. From September 2004

......Last week in Cincinnati, Cheney told voters that indicators miss the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on eBay. "That's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago," the vice president said. "Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay." .......

The piece of shit forgot to mention these "Four hundred thousand people" he references were probably selling off what they could to stay afloat .....