Low-cost life for all

[xchrom]

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1375731-low-cost-life-all

In Spain, 17.1 million people bring home about 1,000 euros gross per month. That's 63 percent of the working population, according to figures from the Union of Technicians of the Ministry of Finance (Gestha). To get to the end of the month on this kind of money in your pocket is a Herculean task. Many families are counting the cents closely before they head out to shop. For thousands of Spaniards today, buying something has become an act of renunciation.

Against this harsh backdrop, the low-cost shopping phenomenon is flourishing, and it does not look set to die out any time soon. Quite to the contrary, it's becoming a more and more prominent feature of society and its economy. Restaurants, travel, cars, insurance, electronics, real estate, leisure, clothing, food: nothing seems to escape the pull of low-cost shopping.

The question, though, is whether low-cost shopping will still be around once the crisis has passed. Is it a structural or temporary strategy? How will the consumer have changed by then? Will he or she be more rational, less impulsive? Dare we assume that the search for the lowest price has become a new way of life?
Low-cost strategy

“Compulsive and disproportionate shopping is a pathological condition that we frequently encounter. On the other hand, saving, even in a compulsive way, doesn’t figure in any medical handbook,” says Guillermo Fouce, Doctor of Psychology and professor at the Universidad Carlos III (Madrid). No one is pathologically thrifty. This is not a trivial remark, since any pattern of consumption taken to the extreme can lead to problems.

[Liberal Veteran]

1. Sounds the Republican Roadmap for American.

Except, of course, for the "job creators", who can spend lavishly on non-essentials like diamond studded earrings for their cockroaches and golden orb spider spun toilet tissue.