STORES Magazine - January 2008 - (Page 43)

EXECUTIVE SUITE / RESEARCH Déjà Vu in China? Young consumers’ habits appear to mirror those of Americans a generation earlier BY M.V. GREENE merica in the 1980s is often portrayed as the yuppified, “greed is good” decade. Yet, for all the narcissism it evokes, the decade brought vigor, optimism and enthusiasm to an increasingly prosperous Baby-Boom populace. ry, TVs and vacation travel, according to the China Quarterly, a BIGresearch compendium that monitors the economic outlook, lifestyle, media consumption and purchasing behavior of the Chinese consumer. “A lot of the young people are going through college or have access to the Internet or they are going to work in high-tech jobs and work for multi-nationals,” says BIGresearch analyst History does have a knack for repeating itself, and a sense of Phil Rist. “They are young professionals making money and ’80s renewal is playing out today in what may be the world’s buying things to show they are making money.” hottest economy – China. And U.S. retailers are well-posiYoung Chinese consumers were confident and expectant tioned to benefit. about their country’s economic prospects in the second quarter Like their U.S. counterparts did a quarter century ago, 20of 2007, when the China Quarterly data was compiled. Approxand 30-something Chinese are making a rapid transition into imately 92 percent of the Chinese consumers surveyed expressed relatively high-paying jobs in the developing service and techa high degree of confidence in their economy – nearly double the nologies sectors. While large parts of China remain poor and rate (47.7 percent) of their rural, the nation’s increasU.S. counterparts. ingly sophisticated cities Year of the Bull Consequently, they are are home to more than Young Chinese consumers (ages 18 to 34) are overwhelmingly more inclined to say they 380 million consumers in confident in the chances for a strong economy in the next six will purchase big-ticket the coveted 18- to 34months — much more so than their U.S. counterparts. consumables in the short year-old demographic CHINESE AMERICANS term: 39 percent planned who are exhibiting a Very confident in the domestic economy 41.6% 8.5% to purchase vacation travstrong appetite for luxury Confident in the domestic economy 50.3 39.2 el, 35 percent indicated goods, electronics and they will buy a digital camfashion. Have little confidence in the domestic economy 7.2 42.1 They want all the same era and 29 percent will opt Have no confidence in the domestic economy 1 10.2 life-defining big-ticket for jewelry or watches over Source: BIGresearch China Quarterly, Q2 2007 items — computers, jewelthe ensuing six months. A WWW.STORES.ORG STORES / JANUARY 2008 43 http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - January 2008

STORES Magazine - January 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Build a 'Bot Sneak Peek at Fashion Trends What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Cover Story: Fishing for Talent Retail CEO Compensation Research Concept2Watch E-Commerce Payment Solutions Online Merchandising POS LPInformation LP Vantage Point Newsbeat Industry Watch Cover Story: Making LP PCI-Compliant Mall Security Video Surveillance Industry Perspective Forum RFID Business Intelligence Data Management Logistics Turning Green into Gold Love of – and for – the Outdoors Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - January 2008

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