I would never have predicted the boom in handcrafted, boutique, upmarket versions of existing discretionary consumer products over a period when consumers were supposed to be feeling squeezed.

From craft beer (homebrew), to street food (junk food), to coffee shops on every corner, and ideally cold-brewed premium hand-roasted coffee at that. The rational side of me thinks that all these things are ripe for cost-cutting. I really don’t feel that budget brands like Aldi or Wetherspoons have seen anything like the sort of growth I expected - compared with Apple (* probably not a fair comparison), Nandos, and Innocent.

I can see an argument that a pint of ‘craft beer’ represents better value than a pint of mass-market Fosters. Perhaps it is also more of an experience or a treat. Or maybe we’ve seen the reversal of a trend of offering a decreasing quality of good for the same price: I literally just sat down to finish this blog post and ripped the arse out of my jeans. They are just over three months old from H&M. I feel like a pair of jeans should last a couple of years. If someone offered me a pair of hand-stitched premium denim jeans right now I’d probably take them.