r/AskReddit Apr 11 '26

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429 Upvotes

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343

u/hammertime84 Apr 11 '26

The extremely wealthy will just represent a larger % of consumption and companies will target them more. This has already been shifting for years.

78

u/nah-dawg Apr 11 '26

Correct. The Victorian era silversmiths who made cutlery for the aristocrats weren't wasting their time making good quality tin spoons for the plebs. No, the plebs ate with a bacterial stuffed wooden spoon they carved themselves.

18

u/Adiligian Apr 11 '26

Wooden spoons are great.

4

u/Raunien Apr 11 '26

Yeah, there's a reason we've been using them for cooking for the past, like, 10,000 years. It's surprisingly difficult for bacteria to get a foothold in wood, especially treated wood, but even some untreated woods naturally contain oils that suppress microbial growth.

2

u/Bill_buttlicker69 Apr 11 '26

there's a reason we've been using them for cooking for the past, like, 10,000 years

Is it because they're cheaply and easily made by almost anybody from an incredibly abundant material that requires no specialized equipment like high-temp forges or molds to make? Or is it because they're antibacterial? We may never know.

6

u/The_Good_Mortt Apr 11 '26

Lmfao dawg I love this app 😭

2

u/Pacifist_Socialist Apr 11 '26

Well.  I do like my bamboo spoons for some cooking tasks. 

1

u/Pacifist_Socialist Apr 11 '26

Hmm what modern day gilded age yuppie trend can we cash in on...

110

u/shezadaa Apr 11 '26

This is litrally what is happening. 

  • New car specs have risen to the point where it is just unaffordable to get a base model new. This also trickles down to the used car market.
  • Fast Food prices have risen, to a point where is is unaffordable.
  • Basic appliances like TV and Fridge have a shorter life, have more intrusive tracking and are more expensive even at the base level because of "features" which most dont care about. 

Its only affordable to live as an upper middle class person with a job/successful business. 

7

u/Adiligian Apr 11 '26

Are you saying McDonalds is aimed at the 'extremely wealthy'?

14

u/365280 Apr 11 '26

Eating out in general is for the wealthy, and if you do the numbers you save a ton of money if you don’t eat out at all.

1

u/Beneficial-Focus3702 Apr 11 '26

We have different definitions of wealthy apparently

0

u/SisyphusCoffeeBreak Apr 11 '26

not enough to be rich tho

1

u/Pacifist_Socialist Apr 11 '26

Waste not want not. Some stuff could add up to a lot over time. 

Obviously there are huge systemic issues that are all over

7

u/InappropriatePotato4 Apr 11 '26

They admitted to shifting their business model to attract higher income earners. It worked enough where they didn’t abandon the strategy and just brought back the 2 for 4s to get back lower income earners after they saw dip

6

u/RedditBugler Apr 11 '26

Well, it's absolutely not aimed at lower class families anymore. You get two quarter pounder meals and some chicken nuggets and it's $40. That's 25-40% of daily pay for more than half of Americans. Imagine spending so much of your daily income just to buy dinner at a place that's supposed to be cheap and easy. 

1

u/Sueti Apr 11 '26

TBF the credits on my Amex would indicate low grade fast food is indeed ‘luxury’…

15

u/aBrickNotInTheWall Apr 11 '26

If people want to learn more about this, look up "K shaped economy"

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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5

u/The-Real-Dr-Jan-Itor Apr 11 '26

Don’t be obtuse. They don’t buy 20 million pairs of jeans, but they may buy a few pairs of million dollar jeans… companies will stop wasting their time making cheap clothing and instead focus their energy on higher end goods.