Vanity Is Lucrative

Every year we Americans spend more and more of scarcer and scarcer dollars on products and services meant to make us look and feel better. We keep on ramping up the rampant spending, so it’s definitely having some effect!

The United States turned over about $84 billion in sales of all beauty and discretionary hygiene products in 2016. (Ref. statista.com/topics/1008/cosmetics-industry) According to market research conducted by The NPD Group, prestige beauty products purchased in specialty or department stores totaled $12.8 billion in sales nationwide in 2016. (Ref. latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-bluemercury-20171020-story.html) This represented the third consecutive year of growth in excess of $1 billion. (Ref. npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/2017/us-prestige-beauty-industry-adds-1-billion-in-sales-grows-6-percent-in-2016)

Despite the hegemony of Amazon’s online marketplace and despite persistent real-wage stagnation, darn it, we Americans are going to go out and we’re going to look good!

See Barry Beck for more information.