Excuse me sir, can you spare a cup of Middle Class?

Saturday, sparked on by a desire to buy clothes for the Princess, the cheese and momma cheese headed over to the Robinsons-May at the Brea Mall. In case you hadn't heard, Federated, who owns Macy, Robinons-May, etc. has decided to close a number of various stores throughout the country. This means that, right now, at the Brea store everything is discounted.

Not surprisingly, the store was packed with glinty-eyed shoppers looking to find a deal, and sullen faced employees no doubt counting the days to their final pay checks. The cheese likes a bargain as much as the next guy, but both he and momma cheese were overwhelmed by the feeling of depression and sadness overwhelming the place.

It struck the cheese, too, how retail companies over the last several years are attempting to reposition themselves. On the one had, you Wal-mart and Target. Basically, places that drive business on the idea of "low price points" and, not coincidently, paying low wages and generally treating employees like disposable toilet paper. Then, you have on the opposite end of the spectrum the "high-priced" brand stores; Bloomingdales, Nieman Marcus, etc. These places attract, by the very products they sell, only "upper class" (by definition of income) clientele.

For many years, though, there seem to exist a number of retailers who existed solidly in the middle range of this spectrum; Mervyns, Macy's, Robinsons-May, Montgomary Ward, Nordstrom. Certainly, there was a variety of price points/products within the "middle" stores, but essentially they catered to the middle class.

It seems over the last decade, though, that these middle stores are slowly going the way of the buffalo. Montgomary Ward no longer exists. Robinsons-May is being phased out. Sears has been bought by K-Mart (and Mervyns is likewise owned by Target). And others seem to be migrating to the opposite ends of the spectrum. Nordstrom, and Macy's, for instance are both going through brand identification/product shifts so that they are more in competition with Bloomingdales, which will necessarily alienate their lower-middle class customers.

But the cheese sees this as more indicative of a culture shift in the American population, than strictly in the realm of department stores. The cheese, for instance, lives in Orange County CA. Now, this isn't exactly a great place to use as a litmus test for the nation, but there are, nevertheless, disturbing trends that take place here. It is now, and has always been, a roughly middle to upper-middle class county. Yes, there are lower to lower-middle class portions, but that's the case everywhere. But over the last few years it seems that people are no longer happy with the middle, or even, upper-middle class designation. This seems particularly the case with younger (the cheese is talking even as young as 13 or so) citizens in the OC. Just walk through any mall on a weekend and you're bound to see countless teenage girls carrying 300 dollar handbags, wearing Dolce and Gabana sunglasses, and carrying around chihuahua's just like Paris Hilton.

Middle class, like lower class (or even liberal), has somehow become a stigmatizing label. It seems that everybody wants to be Carrie Bradshaw, but no one wants to be the Brady Brunch(the cheese is talking socio-economically here people). Maybe it's worse here, where there seems to be more H3 Hummers per capita than literate 16 year olds, but the cheese has a stinking suspicion that it's a trend throughout the country.

The sad fact is, this *ahem* democracy was built on the blue collar (both conservative and liberal) backs of the working middle class; with some white collar thrown in for flair! We can't all be rich, and honestly, why would we all want to be? But as the middle class slowly withers and dies (just like the moderates, everything in the middle must go!) you can bet your 300 dollar Ipod that the country will wither and die too. The cheese is hoping that when this experiment we like to call the USA is finally over and done with we'll go back to the days of the Roman empire. You really knew where you stood with those guys.