Christmas is just around the corner but people seem to be approaching this year’s traditional buying season with a bit more apprehension than usual. Global finances are in the shitter, debt is rising and long term savings have tumbled. A gradual erosion of buying power has led to some interesting market segregation though. On one hand some are either delaying or ditching plans for large cost purchases in order to conserve money where they can but many are actually following a different mantra. For them, the focus seems to be upon spending more now in order to buy quality rather than settle for a product they’ll want to replace in short order. This could be why HDTV makers have reported a massive jump in sales of $1000+ sets while the lower end products have been experiencing relatively poor retail movement.