Consumers change their behavior when the economy gets rough. This economy definitely is rough, so the only question is, how will consumers change. The Atlantic ponders several scenarios:

• “Consumers scale back existing consumption habits. They buy the same things, roughly speaking, but they shift from expensive to cheaper versions, from big quantities to small quantities.”
• “One variation on this scheme would be to scale back all categories except one. This consumer would make cuts across the board, but would continue to eat out at the present level, or buy the same kind of car, or … you get the idea.”
• “Consumers scale consumption back and then engage in a balanced pattern of buying up and buying down. Haagen-Dazs ice cream is purchased with Costco savings.”
• “The standing expectation is that consumers who scale down will scale back up when prosperity and credit return. But it is possible that the new, more modest, positively Amsterdamian, consumption pattern will prove sticky.”

I hope the fourth option holds true — and we’re determined to make it hold true in the Glover household. If this nasty economy kills off the conspicuous consumption we have practiced the past few decades, it will have been worth the pain.

Swamp cabbage for supper, anyone?