Business | Investment
Women fight recession blues, invest in looks
Spending on grooming increasingly being seen as critical to furthering one's own brand in the workplace.
- By Kathryn Hopkins and Patrick Collinson,
- Published: 23:51 July 3, 2009
Dubai: Prior to the recession, Poonam Suri, 26, used to go to the salon twice a month. Now, she visits her beautician four times a week.
In the last two months, the single expatriate from India splurged Dh 6,000 on clothes, jewellery, make-up and household items.
Suri is fully aware that spending so much money during a time of global recession may seem ironical but she has her reasons: she feels it's imperative she invests in her looks to boost her self-confidence especially with the doom-and-gloom scenario becoming a daily thing on the news.
"The recession is a stressful time, especially when you look at the people around you that are not doing very well and you think about how unpredictable the future looks. At least now, I feel more relaxed and stress-free. Besides, it's important that I invest in my looks. My job requires me to be well-groomed at all times," notes Suri, a workplace coach at an airline in Dubai.
Another reason that she now shops more than ever, Suri adds, is that the sales and promotions being dangled by shops and salons in the UAE are too hard to resist.
"Everything is on sale right now. Salons are extending very good offers, so why not take advantage of them? Anyways, it makes me feel and look good," she says.
Indeed, research into the shopping habits of women, at least in Britain, has found that spending on clothes, gym memberships and holidays has recovered over the past six months and is now higher than before the credit crunch.
The research, by Post Office Financial Services, also found that millions of women are quietly borrowing from relatives to maintain their spending, in what it says is an attempt to uphold an image and avoid potential redundancy.
"What we are seeing in the shopping habits of these women is not escapism or avoidance of the truth; it is actually more shrewd and calculated than that. When the economy is insecure, people and jobs can fall with it, and so these women have gone into 'survival mode', polishing up their images to ensure their economic and emotional survival. Also, a woman knows that investing in herself is the best way to boost self-confidence, especially in troubled times," observes consumer spending psychologist Donna Dawson says.
Sophie Stringer, a 28-year-old freelance researcher for a non-profit organisation in the UK, has continued to buy smart clothes during the recession as she believes it is important to look your best when "you are your only representative".
She has also recently joined a gym for the first time in her life to keep herself fit and healthy, as sick days are a no-no when you're not permanent staff. Sophie says: "When you're working for yourself you're your own brand to an extent, so I look after myself and tell myself it's an investment."
She says she justifies buying clothes and shoes for work and would get miserable if she was constantly telling herself, "no, you can't".
Another reason women are continuing to spend in the recession is that they have been less affected by job cuts than men. Professor John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development , refers to the ongoing economic crisis as a 'man-cession'.
"The redundancy rate for men has more than doubled. The number of men in work has fallen by 2 per cent, the number of women in work by 0.6 per cent. The number of men unemployed has increased by 45 per cent, the number of women unemployed by a quarter," he said.
"This pattern is mainly explained by the relative buoyancy of part-time employment and the growth in public sector employment types of employment in which women are strongly represented."
High street spending has also been boosted by steep falls in the cost of servicing mortgages, even though bills are going up elsewhere. Research published by Halifax reveals that the average cost of running a home (mostly the mortgage) has fallen from 28 per cent of average earnings last year to 23 per cent of earnings today.
The typical family now spends £7,298 (Dh43,865) on mortgage, gas and electricity bills, and maintenance compared to £8,766 last year freeing up £1,468 to spend elsewhere.
Down on the high street, many shoppers regard saving as pointless when interest rates are so low.
"I'm spending more on cosmetics, jewellery and clothes than a couple of years ago. It makes me feel better," says Harriet Lane, a 27-year-old school nurse from Oxford. "I can't see the point in saving because of low interest rates. I don't have much disposable income, so what I do have I would rather spend on treating myself," she says.
Lane says that buying small things such as jewellery and make-up can make a big difference to her psychologically, especially when there is a lot of doom and gloom in the news. But she has also increased her spending to take advantage of cut-price deals in shops hit by the crunch.
"I have definitely noticed that in the last six months websites and shops have had more sales. I'm quite easily persuaded. It encourages people like me to spend," she says, adding that she now rarely buys anything full price.
Quite how much of this spending is being financed by debt is not known, but there are worrying signs that the 'green shoots' of recovery - real or false - are once again encouraging more relaxed attitudes to debt.
According to the Post Office, the research revealed that "over 15 million women have not reduced the number of credit cards they use during the credit crunch, and nearly 3 million are borrowing money from a relative to keep their finances topped up."
For the first time in six months, Britons took out more debt than they repaid during the first part of 2009, financial adviser website unbiased.co.uk said this week. The first quarter of the year saw new debt rise to £2.7 billion, while savings levels dropped to an all time low.
Beccy Boden Wilks at the National Debtline says she still regularly deals with individuals hypnotised by a spending culture: "Over the years I have worked with young women that were funding a lifestyle they can't afford. One girl went on a shopping trip to New York when she was in debt. It's expensive to go to New York anyway, let alone to go shopping."
- Guardian News & Media Limited (With inputs from Cleofe Maceda, Staff Reporter)
Share this article
More from Investment
More from Business
Popular in Business
-
Budget travel
Airlines in the region
Take a pictorial look at some of the budget airlines in GCC
Business Editor's choice
-
It costs a million to raise a child
Generation Z doesn't leave home at 18, but stay with the parents until mid-20s
-
Investing in funds doesn't come cheap
Many people are unaware of the effect of different expenses on their returns
-
Firm turns televised events into marketing dream
Drops anchor in Dubai to sell world's richest yachting races
