In reply to Galileo's Universe:
But that's a survey conducted in 2001. What's that got to do with what people have to deal with today-they are trying to keep their health insurances and trying to pay their rent and mortgages. I think H&M, Topshop are doing fine because they provide fashionable clothes in prices people could afford, in this harsh economic climate, quality is not the top priority in clothes. High end retailing has to slash their prices in order to attract customers(Loehmann's a discount department store specializes in selling US and European high end brand named merchandise is still doing very well), or they have to rely on Chinese or Middle Eastern wealthy tourists. Many specialty boutiques in my area are going out of business. There have been four women's boutiques on one block that have gone out of business in the last six months, that block is on a busy Ave in a middle class neighborhood in Berkeley. This is the time when almost every kind of retail business is suffering. Almost every restaurant, businesses been down 20 precent. People are just trying to hold on to what they already have, not accumulating more stuff if it's not absolutely necessary.
