Saturday, July 14, 2007

What is worth a tenner?


And yet another survey, this one from Engage Mutual. Note to Engage's Communications Manager – when you issue a press release make sure you update your web site – even better make available the details of the research!

2,700 people were divided into three groups: ‘grandparents’ (50+), parents (25-50) and child-free adults (aged 25 and under) and asked what they thought £10 should be able to buy. Why I wonder did they associate age with being a parent or grandparent?

Two-thirds of those with grandchildren think it is absurd to pay a tenner for a bottle of wine when there are so many cheaper alternatives to be had.
Yet this falls to 56 per cent of those who have children, and dips to just 45 per cent of those aged 25 and under.

The opposite is true with flowers, with 42 per cent of the under-25s claiming a tenner is too much for a bouquet, compared with 38 per cent of parents and 37 per cent of grandparents.

The younger generation are more willing to flash their cash on a pizza, a pair of knickers or a round of drinks than those who remember the days when they could pay much less for those things.

Yet it is older people who spend more on quality food, with just 27 per cent of grandparents claiming that £10 is too much to pay for a joint of meat, compared with 34 per cent of parents and 40 per cent of younger adults.

Other items which the over-50s begrudge spending a tenner on include T-shirts and cinema tickets but not baby outfits and local train tickets, both of which younger adults find a rip-off.

I am not sure what this tells us – probably very little. Dick Stroud

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