In response to Chris's post about conspicuous consumption?

Do you think conspicuous consumption will become worse as time goes on? Or have we reached the peak? 

Americans love stuff.  We want everything that's new on the market, even if it is expensive and even if we already have something that's very similar. Do we need that something new? Probably not, but we buy it anyways.

I don't think that real change will occur in our conspicuous consumption until its to late. In our consumption of the new and better we are filling up our landfills with yesterdays products, using up our natural resources and spending our sells into bankruptcy. 

I worry about what kind of legacy we are leaving for our children and our grandchildren. We are teaching them that more is better, that they don't have to save for what want, they can just "charge it" and we are showing them that it is okay to throw out things that still work if we don't want them. 

If we all just waited to buy something new, until that older thing that we were using wore out, it would be a change for the better. If we taught our children that they had to save for what they wanted and couldn't buy it till they could pay for it in cash , that would be a change for the better. 

We all need to stop and think before we spend. We don't really need the newest phone on the market, or all the apps that go with it. If each us cut back just a little that would be a step in the right direction.

Can we change our consumption patterns in a positive way? Is it to late to change our ways?

Why did American Stores believe that luxury can come from only the Old World?

When looking to sell high end products to tourist, American stores have always seemed to direct their sales effort to tourist from the “Old World”. But that seems to be changing.   Many Europeans have been traveling to the US and buying many of our luxury items, in one respect the value of the American Dollar compared to the Euro, and the availability and diversity of products in our major cities.  

In a recent article in the New York Times dated: 4-14-12, by Stephanie Clifford, stated that many of our American luxury stores are now in competition, with European luxury stores, for Chinese tourists. One VP of an upscale Antique Store stated:” There has been prosperity across so much of Asia that you’re starting to see it much more in the profile of the tourist on Madison Avenue” 

Competition has become fierce. Some stores have been treating Chinese tourists to private concerts with pianist Lang Lang, cocktails, and fashion shows attended by designers; Oscar de la Renta and Diane Von Furstenberg.  Stores such as Tiffany and Montblanc have added staff members who speak Mandarin and Cantonese. The article goes on to say that the US retailers are lagging behind other countries, in part due to Visa issues but also they have failed to see the rising affluent in Asia.

Will American retailers be able to compete with European Retailers, or will they be left behind?