Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 3, 1991 TAG: 9102280494
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By PATRICIA CALHOUN BIBBY/ ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's every retailer's nightmare: The yuppies are dead.
But it's a reality. The era of the yuppie, the ultimate conspicuous consumer, is clearly over, said Marissa Piesman, co-author of "The Yuppie Handbook."
The high-profile consumer and retail darling who once was obsessed with career climbing has transformed into a creature Piesman calls the "schleppy" - a person off the fast track who is "living with less grandiose expectations and accepting limitations."
Those limitations include exterminating the bug to buy, she said.
"Just as we don't sit around getting stoned and listening to music all day, we can't go out and spend money all day," said Piesman, 39. "It's just a natural evolution of getting older."
The evolution began as yuppies began to take inventory of their lives.
Here's what they found: food processors, pasta makers, espresso-cappuccino makers, portable telephones, humidifiers, telephone answering machines, faxes, air cleaners, computers, exercise machines, massage tables, and remote controls for the television, the VCR, the CD player, the stereo receiver and the garage door.
It took about a decade, but the yuppie finally had discovered the meaning of an old maxim: You can't buy happiness.
"They were trying to find some meaning in their lives and they weren't finding it in department stores," said Karen Meredith, founder of the American Association of Boomers, an advocacy group for members of the huge demographic bulge born around the years 1946 to 1960.
Instead, the yuppie, really just a baby boomer armed with a Gold Card and the will and the means to abuse it, is looking for solace in other places, chiefly in home and hearth, according to trend spotters. And when it comes to spending sprees, the thrill is gone, they said.
"A lot of people have acquired a lot of stuff," Meredith said. "How many VCRs and TVs do you really need?"
The new trend is called the new simplicity, downscaling, cashing out and "America's fatigue with excess."
It's also been called a recession.
Recent reports from the U.S. Commerce Department confirmed the nation's bleak buying mood. The department reported that in 1990, consumers spent at the slowest annual pace since the last recession eight years ago. Sales actually dropped from October through December, usually a boom time for retailers.
Those who once were single with few economic responsibilities now are getting married, having children and buying real estate for the first time. Just as they are becoming saddled with serious bills, the economy has started to slow, making them doubly wary of careless spending.
"The small voices are turning into raging bullhorns saying `Save! Save! Save!' " Meredith said.
This new philosophy marks a major shift in buying habits, and retailers say it's no joke: yuppies, their wallets pinched by heavy debt and a lackluster economy, just don't have much mad money anymore.
Those who once conspicuously consumed now want to brag about bargains.
"They will buy a real nice suit that they will wear for a long time," said Meredith. "But the socks, the tie and their underwear, they will buy from the K mart. They want to look nice, but they are cutting corners where they can."
Lillian Maresch, co-founder of Generation Insights, a consulting firm that specializes in tracking the mood of baby boomers, agrees: Cheap is chic these days.
Some national clothing retailers are successfully targeting the new sensibility with an all-cotton look that's practical, not ostentatious and reasonably priced. Notably, the clothes bear no outer label but are being promoted with advertising showing cutting-edge celebrities dressing down but looking au courant.
How are advertising agencies coping with the consumer doldrums of the 1990s, the passing of the yuppie? Always the svengalis of spending, the mavens of Madison Avenue now pitch value over vanity.
"The buzzword in the industry is value. And it's probably going to be more epidemic during the next year," said Jon Berry, a senior writer who covers demographics at Market Week.
"Instead of selling people on the notion that the product will make them feel like a big shot, like a Donald Trump, they are selling more on the idea that you're a shrewd shopper," Berry said.
Consumers want "less hype, better value," said Faith Popcorn, chairwoman of BrainReserve Inc., a trend watcher and marketing consultant.
"BMW, for one, is repositioning itself," Berry said, "It's being sold as a powerful and sturdy machine, and not just a status symbol."
"The status car is no longer important," Maresch said. Meredith concurred: "It's very fashionable now to have the oldest car on the block."
by CNB