High Earners Take a Break From Shopping

For Mac McKay, 2012 was going to be the year he started splurging again. After sales at his flower shop in Arlington, Va., rebounded, the 62-year-old planned to take his first vacation since the recession and start a $30,000 kitchen renovation. Those plans are now dead. “We’ve cut back on a lot of things we used to do,” says McKay, who watched revenue at Garden City Florist sink 15 percent this year. “You can see people tightening. They were more free with their money last year.”

McKay is what retail consultants call a Henry: high earner, not rich yet. This group has helped a gamut of retailers from Target to Saks get through a spotty U.S. recovery. Now, as the European debt crisis snowballs and stock markets lose steam, Henrys are tapping the brakes after just becoming comfortable spending again, says Pamela Danziger, president of consulting firm Unity Marketing. “They are the heavy lifters of the consumer economy,” she says, adding that it “would be very bad” if they became more cautious.