There is, doubtless, a period of adjustment in marketing any new product, but innovation has been a staple of growth in the last couple of centuries. Take the automobile, which became a primary engine of growth in this country. Only a few visionaries were particularly interested in the development of a horseless carriage, most people were content with their surreys. The first automobiles were slow, unreliable, forced to run on bad roads, and unsupported by a network of service stations. They were also expensive. Thus, they began as a toy of the rich. However, further innovations in production and marketing, mainly pioneered by Henry Ford, made cars a normal feature of middle class life, and finally even reached down to the working class, through the secondary market.
On families: the lack of complaints that Brits haven't enough time to spend with their families may mean they spend more time, or it may mean that they spend all the time they want to, whatever it might be. On the absence of complaint about curtailed shopping: sociologists have done studies of behavior in lines (queues), and discovered, of course, that Europeans are much more patient than American when forced to wait for any length of time. What you are interpreting as a lack of consumer interest might very well be resignation and the inability to imagine anything different. Hard to tell.
I do not know enough about my neighbors's vacations to say (I live in a modest neighborhood), but my impression from colleagues is that they get around pretty much as they please, when vacation time rolls around.
Since you describe a what sounds like a bungalow, which is not what I think of when referring to a bed- and- breakfast, I am at a loss. I had a beach rental last week that was similar, except that no one offered to cook breakfast.
It is true, I am not being fully empirical when talking about some of these things, but, on the other hand, it is known that there is restrictive legislation in the city of Paris protecting small businesses, and that some things have caught on in the suburbs where they are permitted, like "hypermarts". Besides, some of these debates are rather like arguing that the Japanese like having a fifth of the living space of the average American: no one finds that plausible, it is only expense that can explain the phenomenon.
Administration are formed by mayors, governors, and presidents, not senators. Obviously, proving one's record can be hard, and there are vicissitudes outside one's control. But assuming that one can make a clear case, the relationship holds: the electorate is looking for the biggest bang for its buck, too..... |
