For wealthy, a different notion of 'cutting back'

Even the well-heeled are willing to cut back in a rocky economy, though there are some sacrifices they just won't make.

Laurel Chirico, who owns three Tony & Guy Hairdressing salons in Orange County and charges $250 for a cut, can testify to that.

"I'm booked out a couple months. I don't see any slowdown at all," Chirico said recently. "We're definitely a business that's pretty safe" in the midst of what might be a recession.

For some merchants and manufacturers, the stumbling economy of 2008 isn't as painful as it is for others. Americans of certain economic classes have broadened the definition of household staples to include items -- organic fruit, cellphones for the kids, greens fees, personal trainers, bottled water -- that their parents wouldn't in their dreams have considered essential.

These people do respond to an iffy economy, though not in the same way as earlier generations, said Patricia Pao, owner of Pao Principle, a retail consulting firm in New York. Instead of reining in across the board, she said, they engage in "selective spending."

So Janet Lowder is trimming her grocery bill, cooking most anything stashed in the freezer, but won't abandon her manicure and pedicure every two weeks or her weekly massage.

"It's a real stress reliever," said Lowder, president of Restaurant Management Services in Rancho Palos Verdes. "Those things you have to have."

Although consumers with above-average disposable incomes have been notching back since the third quarter of last year, they aren't curtailing purchases of "experiences," such as theater tickets and meals out, said Pam Danziger, owner of Unity Marketing, a research firm that focuses on luxury markets.

Danziger herself draws the line at stopping Botox and Restylane treatments, which set her back $800 or so every four months.

"I'm not about to give that up," she said. "That's my affordable luxury."

How else do the comfortably situated cope? They might split an entree at dinner, Danziger said, or, given the shriveled U.S. dollar, adjust their travel itineraries.

"A very simple way to save on travel is to not go to Europe," she said. "All you'll do is end up feeling poor over there anyway."

Apparently, that is a chance that many are willing to take. International travel bookings for June through August are running ahead of last year, and trips to some European cities (Pisa, Italy; Geneva, Lisbon) show double-digit gains, according to American Express Co. More people also are traveling to China, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and other far-flung places, the company said in an e-mail.