Overt Displays of Wealth

Remember when conspicuous consumption was the norm? Logos all over everything, to announce the amount of money you'd spent, lasted a couple of decades. It used to be that it was, ahem, very personal products that were transported in plain brown wrappers. In fact, in my college town, the personal products store was called The Plain Brown Wrapper.

Now? Sex shops aren't under wraps anymore but high-end consumer goods are carried about in unmarked bags, so as not to identify the expensive purchases. In some malls and shopping districts, it probably doesn't matter; there aren't enough low-end stores around to fool anyone.