go-Digital Blog on Digital Marketing

Spend polarization

The 2011 year-to-date stock performance of retail stocks show that “ultra low end” Dollar Tree (DLTR) and “ultra high end”Whole Foods (WFM) are the best performers whereas companies that are in the “practically undifferentiated middle” are down — Target (TGT) and Saks (SKS).

 

ORIGINAL POST:  February 23, 2009.

Spend polarization – in this economy, people will try to save every last penny so they will spend more at Wal-mart (low prices). But when they do treat themselves, they will spend on even higher end items like $40 balsamic vinegar, or high end chocolate (high prices).

Jacques Torres was packed before Valentines this year

low end
1. people buying private label, generics, or store brands (quality of which are pretty comparable to name brands)
Private Labels winning the battle of the brands
http://adage.com/article?article_id=134791

high end
2.we were at Williams Sonoma yesterday and I watched 3 families buy Shun knives (super expensive) and Shun has just released an even higher end series of knives by Michel Bras

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