Women trends: living single, paying cash
January 17, 2007 by Mary Wynne-Wynter
What strikes me most about this first story is the change in perceptions and expectations.51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse: "For what experts say is probably the first time, more U.S. women are living without a husband than with one."
William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington, described the shift as “a clear tipping point, reflecting the culmination of post-1960 trends associated with greater independence and more flexible lifestyles for women.”And the non-single, big-spending women sneak more.
“Women buying luxury goods in cash is a fast-growing phenomenon,” said Marshal Cohen, an analyst for NPD Group, a market research firm that conducts 45,000 online interviews about consumer habits each week. Mr. Cohen, who interviews as many as 100 shoppers weekly, said women reported paying with cash to disguise purchases as low as $150 and as much as $10,000. “Their answer to why they’re doing this is always the same,” he said. “Their husbands or boyfriends don’t identify with the need to own such pricey items, and cash shopping affords them independence.”
(Via NYT > Most E-mailed Articles.)