The Funflation Economy: Rising Experiential Spending is Here to Stay
The first truly maskless summer in four years had consumers ready to see and do it all, baby. Expensive dinners! Flights to Europe! Concerts! Music festivals! Money is just energy and capitalism is king! With post-pandemic inflation only slowing slightly, its impact is reaching far beyond the gas pump and the dairy aisle — even though we (along with the Washington Post) are still wondering why gas and groceries are still so expensive. But, does that include events and experiences? According to the New York Times, yes. In the DealBook Newsletter titled Economists Warn a ‘Summer of Fun’ Could Lead to Autumn Pain, authors Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ravi Mattu, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Lauren Hirsch and Ephrat Livni write: Economists are seeing something weird in the inflation data. Consumers are splurging on pricey meals, through-the-roof airfare and expensive concert tickets. Some economists in Sweden even blamed Beyoncé fans for driving up prices of hotels and restaurants when they converged on the country last month to see the star kick off her world tour. In the U.S., others have seen a similar effect with hotel prices soaring in cities where Taylor Swift performs. “It’s fun-flation, if you’re looking for a word,” Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, told...
