“Middle class” retailers dying out: analysis

TORONTO — The ongoing woes at Sears are just a symptom of the crisis affecting retailers aimed at a middle-class demographic, and it’s one they don’t seem to be winning. CBC business producer Don Pittis suggests that the reason may have more to do with how customers market themselves than with the marketing of products. Today’s shoppers are less likely, he argues, to identify with the middle class, instead harbouring aspirations of mobility – and that makes Sears’ pitch to them an unwelcome reminder of their place in a demographic they would prefer to exit.