Wednesday, January 7, 2009

A small quilted luxury

At the end of this week's Chris Matthews Show, a quick discussion took place regarding the fact that sales are way up for a new product, Quilted Northern's three ply toilet paper. It's more expensive, but people are still buying it in spite of the recession. So what does that say? They suggested it's perhaps a sign that we're going for small luxuries now instead of big ones. Of course, they immediately follow up talking about the toilet paper with the fact that high-end luxury cruises with Abercrombie & Kent are way up, which definitely isn't a small luxury. Maybe people are just following Katt Williams' advice.

So what's going on? Are we just in the most luxurious recession ever? If we see a 6-blade disposable razor come out, I think that question will be answered.

My real question is whether we are being pushed into a recession by the media's claims that we're in one, which causes us to cut back our spending and thus bring to pass their claims. If tomorrow the media started reporting that the recession is over, would people start spending again and thus cause a recovery? Is there harm in trying that strategy?

2 comments:

Nathan Toone said...

Aren't self-fulfilling prophecies wonderful? I'm 100% convinced that most of the reason we are in the state we are is because of media coverage.

B Flat Major said...

I so agree. I know there is concrete evidence for the economic fallout of the threefold crisis that we are in. But I agree that the media as a whole has made things so much worse by whipping us all into a panic. Financially, we are fine, but reading doom & gloom news stories can sure make me feel like we aren't - even though nothing changes in the five minutes it takes for me to read a news article!