By Eric Eisenberg
BOSTON – The current economic crisis has brought personal financial concerns to the forefront of every American’s mind. At the Copley Place shopping center on Thursday, however, hundreds of shoppers walked the hallways, conversation rising above the soft, background music and couples stopping to look into the various display cases.
But inside stores like Gucci, Emporio Armani and Coach few shoppers were pulling clothes off the rack, entering the dressing rooms or at the counter purchasing items.
The economic crisis appears to have hit these high-end shoppers, just like every other sector, potentially more so because they have more to lose.
“I think it’s going to affect everybody,” said Rae Sforza, 47, a sales assistant at Barneys New York from Somerville. “It’s going to affect areas of the economy that we all rely on.”
Since last week, when the Dow Jones plunged more than 500 points and some of the nation’s largest Wall Street firms, including Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and American Insurance Group (AIG), faced collapse, the country has been threatened with what has been called by some economists the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Luxury item retailers of the Copley Place shopping center are among the group threatened to be hit the hardest, as upper-middle class shoppers protect themselves by reducing spending on high-priced items they don’t necessarily need.
“I’ve cut back a little bit, not a great deal,” said Ellen Wilcox, 66, a financial advisor from Orlando, Fla., holding a bag from Williams-Sonoma on her way into Barneys New York. “What I am not spending money on is the luxury items, and I’ve noticed that stores are pretty empty on the upscale side,” she said, pointing to the various stores around the mall.
The extraordinary collapse in real estate values and the enormous losses sustained in investment and retirement portfolios has had a stunning impact on the financial security of the nation’s working and middle class. Nor has this is not been lost on upper income shoppers at Copley Place, including those who have experienced other economic downturns over the last half-century.
“It is constantly on my mind,” said Pamela Linton, 62, an independent business consultant from Boston, while exiting Neiman Marcus, bag in hand. “I lived through the 1970s, and the early 1990s were tough, but they were nothing like today.”
Around Copley Place, many shoppers walked into stores, paused in consideration, and then left before the sales staff could get a word in. At any given time over the past several days, stores such as Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Tiffany & Co., or Mont Blanc would have no more than 10 customers examining the shelves. Sales staffs were left to talk amongst themselves because there were so few customers.
“I am not a crazy, crazy shopper, but I generally shop more than I have,” Linton said. “I only buy discretionary things to wear and I’ve been pulling things out of my closet and saying, ‘this can go another year.’”
While some shoppers and salespeople continue to worry, threatening to keep the luxury stores of Copley Place empty until a full economic recovery, others have faith that the federal government and the proposed $700-billion bailout will help the flagging market recover quickly.
“We’re never had anything akin to this, even in 1929 when the stock market had the great crash leading to the Great Depression,” said Wilcox, the financial advisor. “But, because I understand things a little more perhaps, what I do understand is that our federal government is not going to let that happen again.”
© Eric Eisenberg, All Rights Reserved