High Socioeconomic Status is Associated with Diverse Consumption across Brands and Price Levels

Abstract

Consumption practices are determined by a combination of economic, social, and cultural forces. We posit that lower economic constraints leave more room to diversify consumption along cultural and social aspects in the form of omnivorous or lifestyle-based niche consumption. We provide empirical evidence for this diversity hypothesis by analysing millions of mobile-tracked visits from thousands of Census Block Groups to thousands of stores in New York State. The results show that high income is significantly associated with diverse consumption across brands and price levels. The associations between diversity and income persist but are less prominent for necessity-based consumption and for the densely populated and demographically diverse New York City. The associations replicate for education as an alternative measure of socioeconomic status and for the state of Texas. We further illustrate that the associations cannot be explained by simple geographic constraints, including the neighbourhoods' demographic diversity, the residents' geographic mobility and the stores' local availability, so deeper social and cultural factors must be at play.