I found this article, and while it doesn't really contain much information about the legal or financial implication consumer driven issues, the focus on the attitudes of people during these times I found really interesting...
Financial crisis heralds era of new seriousness | Editor's Choice | Reuters
On the face of it, it is rather self-evident what the general gist of the article is saying, that during harder times when people have less, they tend to attribute negative qualities and feelings to those more frivolous purchases and that often anti-materialist counter cultures can spring up. Of course the dichotomy here is that during the more buoyant years, these frivolous purchases are heralded by the many of the same people as "rewards for our hard work." It's interesting to note that the luxury shopping goods retailers are now placing more emphasis on shopping as a family event and experience, rather than an attempt at, to use a horrible Americanism, blingification and while I doubt the wealthy, the nouveau riche in particular, are ever going to be shy about flaunting their wealth, I do feel that at times like this there is a general feeling amongst the rich of an enforced frugality to preserve a degree popularity amongst the embittered less well off.
What particularly interested me was that for all these luxury stores, a great deal is placed on the change of emphasis of shopping, but there was not a single mention about a change in pricing.
Financial crisis heralds era of new seriousness | Editor's Choice | Reuters
On the face of it, it is rather self-evident what the general gist of the article is saying, that during harder times when people have less, they tend to attribute negative qualities and feelings to those more frivolous purchases and that often anti-materialist counter cultures can spring up. Of course the dichotomy here is that during the more buoyant years, these frivolous purchases are heralded by the many of the same people as "rewards for our hard work." It's interesting to note that the luxury shopping goods retailers are now placing more emphasis on shopping as a family event and experience, rather than an attempt at, to use a horrible Americanism, blingification and while I doubt the wealthy, the nouveau riche in particular, are ever going to be shy about flaunting their wealth, I do feel that at times like this there is a general feeling amongst the rich of an enforced frugality to preserve a degree popularity amongst the embittered less well off.
What particularly interested me was that for all these luxury stores, a great deal is placed on the change of emphasis of shopping, but there was not a single mention about a change in pricing.