看唇膏消费差异折射出社会贫富差距_BEC初级作文

看唇膏消费差异折射出社会贫富差距

但是仔细观察高档美容和个人护理用品（售价21美元以上）的销售额，大家会发现完全不同的情况。高档美容产品行业去年的销售额增长了3.3%，在2008年到2013年期间销售额增长了16.9%。另一方面，大众美容产品（售价20美元以下）的销售额在2013年仅增长1.3%，在过去五年的增长幅度也只有8.3%。

The higher sales of luxury beauty products that are typically sold at a department store or stand-alone beauty stores such as Sephora, MAC, or Shiseido reflect the economic recovery that's confined to the upper echelon of consumers. As of September 2013, 95% of the income gains since 2009 have gone to the top 1%. As a result, spending by the top 5% of earners has risen 17%; it's risen just 1% among the bottom 95% of earners.

奢华美容产品的销售额较高，这些产品通常在百货商店和丝芙兰、MAC或资生堂等美容产品专卖店出售，反映了美国经济复苏仅限于最高端的消费者。截止到2013年9月，2009年以来美国收入最高的1%人口占据了全部收入增长的95%。结果是，美国收入最高的5%人口支出增长了17%，而收入最低的95%人口支出只增长了1%。

"With the good stock market performance and the recovery in housing prices, affluent customers feel comfortable spending on premium products" says Virginia Lee, a senior research analyst at Euromonitor. With food stamp cuts and uncertainty over health care, lower income customers don't have that same confidence, she says, and cheaper beauty products for sale at drugstores have struggled as a result.