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What do you sell when consumers are broke?

by chris young
Monday, June 13, 2005. 09:01PM
596 Views 14 Comments

A recent AC Neilson study of 37 countries finds that the United states has a significant segment of "consumers" who have no money left after monthly expenses. Read the report

Are the Federal Reserve Bank messages of a consumer driven recovery really hiding larger problems in the economy?

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 14 shown
Wednesday, June 15, 2005. 08:45AM by x x
Sounds like I should get into the payday loan business. There's always a good way to look at things.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 09:35PM by Marc Lefton
Payday loans are so bad. The interest, if you don't pay them back on time rivals loan sharks. It works out to like a 600% APR or something. I had a friend when I lived in MA move up from Brooklyn and he was broke and needed money so he asked this girl I was friends with where a pawn shop was. She gave him directions and said she'd take him but he said he'd rather go with me. Anyways, we get there and it was a porn shop. Not only did she make the mistake because of his accent, but he turned down the opportunity for her to TAKE him there. And he said he'd rather go with me. Explains the funny look she gave us.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 08:24PM by Aaron Gasperi
Chris, watch daytime or late night TV.. :-) In MN we've got "Pawn America" and "Payday Loans" ads. Tech college ads.. etc. pretty sad, really. Oh -- and I watch tv during those times because... I'm part time employed (well, looking for first big job, yeah, that's my excuse)
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 10:31AM by Kevin Glennon
Three words: crack freaking cocaine
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 09:24AM by David McNamara
Amen! Looking through the bottom of my Johnny Walker Black bottle as I type........off to buy another, maybe stop off and spend $400 on lap dances from Crystal and Mercedes while I'm out and about... (c: ...haha....yea, I wish I was that cool.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 08:50AM by x x
OK, so we're going to eat chocolate and drink beer at the baseball game and smoke some menthols between innings. Pardon my asking, but when exactly did we declare this National Chicken Freakin Little Day, anyway? I read that report, and there is no comparison against other years. Americans are notorious for living to their means...I know I am. That report doesn't drive me over the financial-planning cliff...I'm not envious that a Danish person might be able to save more money. Actually I could care less because I can't take it with me after I die. I think the real issue here is how are we going to have a blast spending our paychecks before we croak.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 08:07AM by shaun arora
do i get a prize for answering? c'mon. c'mon.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 08:05AM by shaun arora
beer and menthols
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 07:49AM by David McNamara
errr.......if you want to sell your sole to the devil.........usually alcohol sales do well while people are going through hard times................I'd argue that 9 out of 10 bums would prefer alcohol over candy. Am I going to hell for suggesting this?
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 07:42AM by Kim S
Chocolate never goes out of fashion... if there was no food in the house, no heat, no water and someone had 65 cents, I'll bet 6 out of 10 get candy (ala chocolate)... cheap thrills... endorphin feeder...
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 07:15AM by chris young
Mark touches on an interesting concept...in hard times people need a small diversion, inexpensive entertainment like Baseball should do better than outrageously priced sports like Hockey. Small luxury consumables (ie:premium Icecream or Beer) do remarkably well in hard economic times as people treat themselves in their home as opposed to going out.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 07:05AM by x x
We do what we've always done. We give them baseball. Either a game to watch in person with all the trimmings, or the Billings Mustangs vs. the Missoula Osprey. MLB and Minor League Baseball are all basically the same company now (we just launched minorleaguebaseball.com), and we're enjoying record growth year-over-year now. No matter what, people are going to go out to the ballgame. Advertise baseball.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005. 06:22AM by Mark Roberts
While I worked on the international American Airlines business, the account people came up with a promotion to target the "middle class" in Venezuela. And when they showed their ideas to a person on staff from there He responsed that it wouldn't work because "There is no middle class in South America". This pretty much blew their ideas out of the water and was a startling reality to consider. One we are propetuating in our own country. I see it every day.
Monday, June 13, 2005. 10:31PM by ed burgoyne
I would believe it. Housing prices have gone through the roof. For many people over 50 to 65% of their take home pay goes to pay the rent.

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