Is the Era of the $30K Millionaire Over?

D

DeadHorse

1,000+ Posts
I work in the consumer products industry to it's my job to follow consumer trends and demographics and I've noticed that this credit crisis and such have really put a crimp on the companies and retail stores that cater to them.

Generally right now, the higher end the product or store, the worse it's doing. Even mid tier pricing stores like Abercrombie & Fitch who are in the sweet spot of the North Dallas $30K millionaire crowd are taking a hit. (They were off 24% last month.) The Gap, which also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic were also way off. Every single high end place like Nordstrom's, Sak's, etc. took a beating. The Macy's of the world didn't do well, either.

So, my question is, that since we all know unlimited credit limits were the fuel for the $30K Millionaire's engine, does this mean that their time in the sun is over? The days of putting your shopping trip on your credit card and getting your limit raised to cover the next trip are OVER. What will these types do now? How will they live? Where will they go eat? What types of clothes will they buy? Can they adjust to waiting until they have the money for a $200 pair of jeans instead of throwing down the VISA card?

I know the retail industry is having a hard time adjusting but what does the future hold for the credit class?
 
i was a 30-45K millionaire over the past few years for Texas football. not jeans and hair products.

this is the first season where i missed away games. it hurt me badly to stop going to games. it cut me deep. i can't imagine how the douchebags are without their hair paste and their pre-destroyed jeans with sequens on the pockets
 
They will just make some cheaper brand "popular". All the sudden Kia's will be trendy, and all the cool guys will have scruffy beards and use old spice in stead of facials and stuff
 
There are winners in this economy. If you have stayed out of debt, saved, and weren't swinging for the fence with every investment in the market, these are very good times. Stuff is cheap right now and if you are one of the smarter ones who lived within your means over the last 10 years, you hold all the cards.
 
anecdotally i switched to HSBC from Citibank because id finally had enough and HSBC issues me a Visa card with a 5000 USD limit.

I was like "what am I going to do with this?" - they were serious that EVERYONE has to have a card for 3 months before they will consider a different credit limit.

Now I'm sure with some bitching I could have sorted it but i hadnt asked for the card in the first place so I shitcanned it (then again maybe not) but that is in stark contrast to how banks operated before.
 
Not only is this economy taking a toll on their ability to purchase trendy jeans and over priced t-shirts two sizes too small, but I am assuming that leasing a 3 series BMW is getting harder by the day.
 
There is absolutely nothing wrong with driving a Kia. They're good cars.

I love mine.

And I've never had a pair of $200 jeans ...
 
everyone is getting hit, no one is immune from this one. I own a business that caters to the very wealthy and the somewhat wealthy and most certainly not the 30-thousandaires. We've seen declines of over 12% last year and expect more this year. there is no where to hide and only the best businesses will survive at the lowest level and the highest level.
 
As long as there are 20-something single males and females, there will always be $30k millionaires. They will continue to exist in North Dallas, Uptown, the Heights, downtown Austin, Arboretum, and every other urban area in this fine country of ours.

God bless them. We need everyone to keep spending!
 
so its really the age of cheap credit that's over and that in and of itself will and is causing a great, great economic contraction. It's ugly out there and we won't see 2007 levels for years and years.
 
The only good news might be that you can buy houses for a lot less than you could a couple years ago, and you can get sub-5% mortgages right now.
 
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