“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
