Amazon and Walmart’s latest moves confirm the death of the middle class as we know it

Amazon and Walmart’s latest moves confirm the death of the middle class as we know it - Hallo sahabat TIMES NEWS MALAYSIA, Pada Artikel yang anda baca kali ini dengan judul Amazon and Walmart’s latest moves confirm the death of the middle class as we know it, kami telah mempersiapkan artikel ini dengan baik untuk anda baca dan ambil informasi didalamnya. mudah-mudahan isi postingan Artikel Artis Malaysia, Artikel Bisnis, Artikel Bola Sepak, Artikel Maklumat Terkini Mengenai Melaysia, Artikel Malaysia News, Artikel Malaysia Today, Artikel News, Artikel Perniagaan, Artikel Times News, Artikel Viral, yang kami tulis ini dapat anda pahami. baiklah, selamat membaca.

Judul : Amazon and Walmart’s latest moves confirm the death of the middle class as we know it
link : Amazon and Walmart’s latest moves confirm the death of the middle class as we know it

Baca juga


Amazon and Walmart’s latest moves confirm the death of the middle class as we know it

snowy deserted empty mall

Seph Lawless

A deserted shopping mall.

Amazon and Walmart are battling for shoppers at the highest and lowest ends of the income spectrum, and largely leaving the middle class in the dust. 

Amazon, which claims more than 70% of upper-income households in the US — or those earning more than $112,000 a year — as Prime members, is suddenly going after customers on government assistance who earn less than $24,300 a year. 

The retailer announced Tuesday that it’s slashing the cost of its Prime membership in half, to $5.99 a month, for customers who have an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, which is used for government assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps. 

“It’s a shot over the bow at Walmart,” says retail industry consultant Doug Stephens. In other words, the strategy is a direct grab for Walmart’s core customers. Nearly $1 out of every $5 in SNAP benefits was spent at Walmart last year, according to Morningstar

At the same time, Walmart is going after Amazon’s core customers with its $3 billion acquisiton earlier this year of Jet.com, which attracts a younger and higher-income group of shoppers than Walmart. The retailer has also recently been snatching up trendy online retailers like ModCloth, Moosejaw, and ShoeBuy, and is reportedly considering a bid for the high-end menswear brand Bonobos. 

The two retailers’ strategies of aiming at the furthest ends of the income spectrum highlight the widening gap between wealthy and poor Americans, and the disappearance of what was once the most sought-after class of income-earners in the country.

“This is absolutely symptomatic of a deteriorating middle class, or at least what we used to consider to be the middle-class in America,” Stephens told Business Insider.

Walmart customers vs Amazon

Magid Retail Pulse

Less than 25% of households making less than $25,000 subscribe to Amazon Prime, while 60% of consumers making the same income regularly shop Walmart

When Walmart was founded in 1962, the middle class in America was thriving. 

“From post-war to about the late 1970s, you wanted to be in the mid-tier of retail. That is where everybody was making a fortune, including Walmart,” Stephens said. “Then from 1980 onward you wanted to pick a side, because it started to become clear that the middle class was evaporating.”

The deterioration of union jobs, the shift of manufacturing jobs overseas, and the growth of the knowledge economy that led to a boom in high-skilled jobs contributed to this trend.

After the Great Recession, a number of other factors further aggravated the problems facing mid-tier retailers.

Sears

Sears

Consumers started saving more money and traffic to malls plunged, along with spending on apparel and accessories.

People started shifting their spending from durable goods to experiences, travel, and restaurants. Consumers also started dealing with higher fixed expenses from growing technology and health care costs.

As shoppers’ spending habits changed, the middle class continued to decline. 

Between 2000 and 2014, middle-class populations decreased in 203 of the 229 metropolitan areas reviewed in a Pew Research Center study.

That’s why today, both high-end retailers and discount retailers are thriving — or at least surviving — while companies that relied heavily on middle class spending like Macy’s, Sears, and JCPenney are closing hundreds of stores.

NOW WATCH: Take a look inside Amazon’s first NYC brick-and-mortar store

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Read more stories on Business Insider, Malaysian edition of the world’s fastest-growing business and technology news website.



✍ Sumber Pautan : ☕ Business InsiderBusiness Insider

Kredit kepada pemilik laman asal dan sekira berminat untuk meneruskan bacaan sila klik link atau copy paste ke web server : http://ift.tt/2ryB9IQ

(✿◠‿◠)✌ Mukah Pages : Pautan Viral Media Sensasi Tanpa Henti. Memuat-naik beraneka jenis artikel menarik setiap detik tanpa henti dari pelbagai sumber. Selamat membaca dan jangan lupa untuk 👍 Like & 💕 Share di media sosial anda!



Appear first on Times News Malaysia


Demikianlah Artikel Amazon and Walmart’s latest moves confirm the death of the middle class as we know it

Sekianlah artikel Amazon and Walmart’s latest moves confirm the death of the middle class as we know it kali ini, mudah-mudahan bisa memberi manfaat untuk anda semua. baiklah, sampai jumpa di postingan artikel lainnya.

Anda sekarang membaca artikel Amazon and Walmart’s latest moves confirm the death of the middle class as we know it dengan alamat link https://timesnewsmalaysia.blogspot.com/2017/06/amazon-and-walmarts-latest-moves.html

Subscribe to receive free email updates:

Related Posts :