This is a wonderful article by Rick Haskell on the gift industry and in the economy. We’ve included an excerpt here:

“Home designs once again trended towards warmth and away from sleek and modern. Toll painting, quilting, wood working, gardening and scrap booking became national pastimes once more. But in the years since, we’ve morphed back to a point where high tech has replaced high touch, and an economy that has rewarded complex promises more readily than sound advice. The societal pendulum swings with amazing consistency, you just need to look at thirty and fifty year time frames to see it with any clarity.

While our nation adjusts to the current challenges facing our economy, consumers will once again put more of themselves into gift giving, home decor, and creative efforts.  We tend to want to get as much out of our purchases as before, but with fewer dollars to put towards them, we begin to invest more of our own effort in an attempt to create a higher level of quality or a greater affect.  At the end of the day, it’s all about feeling good, and the US consumer will transition towards ways to drive personal and family pleasure without having to spend as much as they have might have before.

As our society transforms itself from a nation of net spenders back towards an economy reflective of meaningful personal investment, consumers will face choices that will motivate them to do more with less.  Less glamour and more comfort, fewer excesses and greater warmth; personal, emotional and heart felt will replace expensive and cutting edge.”

To read the article in its entirety, please click here to go to Rick Haskell’s blog.