“Some tastes are acquired. Apparently those include Kikkoman soy sauce and Ziploc bags,” Ian Salisbury reports for TIME Magazine. “Those are among the consumer brands economists at University of Chicago say most consistently correlate with a purchaser’s wealth. The findings, based on a 2016 survey of buying habits for more than 6,000 Americans, are part of a study about whether rising U.S. income inequality has spurred cultural divisions.”
“The product with the highest overall wealth correlation — allowing researchers to guess whether the purchaser was in the highest or lowest income quartile 69% of the time — was the iPhone. But with the latest model costing upwards of $1,000, researchers conceded that may be as much about price as consumer taste,” Salisbury reports. “Other brands like Kikkoman soy sauce ($1.89 at Target), Ziploc bags ($3.39) and Cascade Complete ($5.99) seem more likely to reflect differences in taste and lifestyle, rather than just affordability.”
Top 3 Products Most Indicative of a High Income
(And likelihood researchers could guess your income quartile if you said you owned or used it)
• iPhone (69%)
• iPad (67%)
• Verizon Wireless (61%)
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Shocking.
SEE ALSO:
Owning an iPhone is the most common sign of wealth – July 9, 2018
Higher income U.S. states use Apple iPhones; lower income states use Samsung Galaxy phones – September 27, 2016
Apple’s App Store is destroying Google Play in services and subscriptions – April 18, 2018
Apple App Store users spent nearly double that of Google Play users in Q417 – January 26, 2018
Apple’s iOS continues to attract content apps first, despite smaller unit share – October 30, 2017
Bernstein: Google to pay Apple $3 billion this year to remain the default search engine on iPhones and iPads – August 14, 2017
Higher income U.S. states use Apple iPhones; lower income states use Samsung Galaxy phones – September 27, 2016
iOS users are worth 10X more than those who settle for Android – July 27, 2016
Apple’s App Store revenue nearly double that of Google’s Android – April 20, 2016
Poor man’s iPhone: Android on the decline – February 26, 2015
Study: iPhone users are smarter and richer than those who settle for Android phones – January 22, 2015
Why Android users can’t have the nicest things – January 5, 2015
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
iPhone users smarter, richer than Android phone users – August 16, 2011
Study: Apple iPhone users richer, younger, more productive than other so-called ‘smartphone’ users – June 12, 200
I was afraid to be labeled a wealthy elitist…..but thank goodness…..I don’t have a Samsung television….we have a Sony. But in all truth…..how does using Kikoman soy sauce demonstrate wealth?
I’m really not sure which quartile I’m in, but buying a new iPhone recently definitely made me poorer.
I’m not wealthy. Upper middle class, I guess. $800 per month of student loans between the wife and I keep us in that middle class category. We both work our butts off, sooo..I get my toys when I can.
I’m wealthy so you can suck it libtards. That’s what hard work does, I don’t wait for handouts or finance my trips and toys on a credit card.
So sad. So pathetic and such a liar.
You know all about sadness, pathetic and lying. You’re the embodiment of all three. Look it up moron.
Aaaawwwwww is its feelings hurt.
I’m actually living large but thanks for trying.
It is hot though.
Thanks for proving my point. You can’t fix STUIPD.
Dave, if you think hard work is the exclusive value of conservatives, you are exposing your narrow minded bias. Ironic how the current conservative xenophobic political base for the current administration is relatively poor and whining that last decades manual labor isn’t profitable enough, while the liberal digital tech, science, and worldwide mobile workers are doing quite well. Flyover country is markedly economically stagnant because the extreme right isn’t willing to embrace changes necessary to be globally competitive. The liberal coastal states are. The data proves it. Of course you can twist the narrative if you take Wisconsin’s corporate welfare as a sugn that the oarty who once wanted govt out of business is now doing everything possible to stick their noses into it, trying to pick winners and losers.
By the way, a review of the richest people in the world shows that almost none of them worked their way into their fortunes. The swindlers and inheritors make you look like a minnow in their oceans. Luck and connections are more important than work. Just ask Liberal Laurene.
“Ironic how the current conservative xenophobic political base for the current administration is relatively poor”
breaking news a poll released yesterday showed 88% of Republicans support prez trump. xenophobic is a troll word and misunderstood. republicans follow the rule of law and love their country. the rest of your post is a volume of fiction and I have wasted more than enough time already
Hey Dave … pic of the Porsche … or it didn’t happen! /S
HH, not much of Porche guy, but how about a picture of my 1966 Cobra?
Thought you were rich. A Cobra is an antique. Hell, a moderately priced Camaro will run circles around your crude kit car. Shelby = overrated.
Hahaha, replica. those car are junk. I’ve had this car for nearly 25 years and is now worth more then your entire life. What kind of broke ass buys a Camaro, which will be worthless in a few years. I have a CSX number and the car is registered with Shelby. Enjoy your pitiful little Camaro. My car was is an investment, not a toy.
…except that merely having a CSX number doesn’t mean that it can’t be a replica, as Shelby himself had a lot of ”authorized’ continuation cars (euphemism for ‘replica’) and these have CSX numbers too.
Currently in Hemmings, there’s two original CSX2xxx from 1962 that haven’t sold at an asking price of $1.1M (which means the market says they’re worth less). Similarly, the CSX continuations listed are in the ~$150K range (which also haven’t sold). The devil is in the details for if they’ve actually been a good investment or not.
For example, stepping back over 25 years to a 1980s era CSX4xxx, they MSRP’ed for ~$70k, so to have its value only double in 25+ years results in only a ~2% rate of return…and that 2% is before subtracting off the simple costs of ownership such as keeping it insured, keeping it maintained, and loss of value if actually driven.
… plus in the meantime, there’s _still_ no pic!
I’ve got closets full of Ziploc bags. I’m a rich hoarder.
Load of crap!
I use ziplock bags and i have an iPhone..
I use Kikkoman soy sauce .. and have a HP printer!
Damn i had no clue i was so wealthy!
Thank you U of C for the enlightenment!
The only thing left for me to figure out is where all my wealth is ?
Sure would love to buy a GT3-RS.. when i find the hidden stash!😄
Also , Android users… don’t fret, you are up there too.. in the top 10 list… 60% accuracy vs 69
So lets see… outside of Android and iOS.. we are left with what ? Flip phones?
Then, per the research above its safe to assume that all smart phone users in USA are wealthy!
Also interesting to note is that 67% of USA population uses smartphones !(https://www.statista.com/statistics/201183/forecast-of-smartphone-penetration-in-the-us/)
Then according to this research and stats …
67% of Americants are wealthy..
LOL
U got to love Stats….
What is particularly interesting in this thread is how many posts do not distinguish between correlation and causation. You don’t get rich from using Kikkoman. You are, however, more likely to be rich if you belong to a wealthy subculture that happens to prefer a particular soy sauce and a particular brand of freezer bags.
Back in the 1950s, there was an almost infallible test for social class: where everybody sat when two married couples travelled together by car. Lower class—both men in front, both women in back. Middle class—car owner couple in front, guest couple in back. Upper class—car owner man in front with other woman, car owner woman in back with other man. Like the Kikkoman connection, it was purely cultural, correlation rather than causation.
Social class is so simple to see in the real world.
They either have
iPhone = Quality but expensive
Samsung = Cheep affordable knock off
I thought it said Kilchoman.
Maybe these things don’t so much represent “divisions” in wealth, but are about spending money wisely.
If those “researchers” tried to guess my income quartile based on owning those top 3 products (which I do), they would be dead wrong.
IMO, most people are simply “penny-wise and pound-foolish”… and that is not a strictly a cultural thing.
Precisely …
This article is a great example of why nobody should get their news and information from websites in general and social media in particular. Brainless parroting of nonsense to those stupid enough to believe anything they are told.
All of the above is just my opinion of course. Just use your brain you don’t need me to tell you anything.
Grain of salt not included.
TIME Magazine zero creditablity on anything. How are they still in business?