Do concerns over affordability and cost of living take a back seat when someone like Taylor Swift or Beyonce comes to Vancouver or another major Canadian city?
Swifties all over the province and likely much of Western Canada were ecstatic to hear the phenomenon was coming to Vancouver.
However, concerns over the cost of living, housing affordability, inflation, and other financial problems make up most of the discourse about living in a city like Vancouver on a regular basis.
Does that all change when someone like Swift announces a tour? Why are people struggling with affordability okay with, in some cases, paying exorbitant prices for specific experiences?
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We put the idea out on X, and people had lots to say about it.
T Swift is once in a lifetime opportunity. Crippling debt lasts a lifetime.
— Kyle Bryan (@KyleBryan) November 9, 2023
I’ve said this before -Taylor Swift is a billionaire who takes your money and so far, is putting very little of that MASSIVE profit back into causes that desperately need help. $100k to her drivers is like a normal person giving them $5.
— Jillian Glover (@thiscitylifeyvr) November 9, 2023
Someone else called it herd mentality, while others have suggested people are buying tickets to make a profit through resale in a city that lacks affordability.
How much are tickets?
Some people claim they’ve been able to get tickets for standard concert prices, somewhere in the range of $150-$200.
We’ve verified that floor seats were about $450 for the early birds, but they go up from there.
Or are you more interested in being RIGHT IN THE ACTION! Only a little shy of $6k pic.twitter.com/klP4xkCt24
— (Ryan) 🦠 (@ThunderBud911) November 9, 2023
Resellers are already jacking up ticket prices, with some tickets going for thousands and pairs going for as much as $17,000 on the resale market.
you picked these people to participate in the “verified fans” presale for eras vancouver… really glad you guys keep up to your standard in getting tickets in the hands of “fans” @Ticketmaster @TicketmasterCS @TMFanSupport pic.twitter.com/P4dnccfIH5
— kendra!! (@kenlovestaylor) November 9, 2023
Similar to other big-ticket events in Vancouver, this will only worsen when tickets are posted on marketplace websites like eBay or Craigslist.
It’s your money
If everything else in my life sucks, I deserve a little treat.
— c ✦ (@solsticesiren) November 9, 2023
Swift’s Era’s Tour has been hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime concert experience. Understandably, Vancouver residents and fans of Swift would be clamouring to participate.
Everyone has the right to spend their money how they wish. But do people lose the right to complain about affordability and the cost of living if they spend their limited resources on more considerable budget expenses?
We spoke to Aviva Philipp-Muller, an associate professor of marketing at SFU’s Beedie School of Business.
“Even when consumers have limited resources, they still choose how to spend their money based on what they value,” Philipp-Muller said.
“For some people, it may be worth it to spend the totality of their savings for that year on Taylor Swift rather than, let’s say, spending it on a vacation or purchasing a pair of new winter boots.”
She suggested that it might seem irrational for non-Swift fans to see someone potentially going into debt, or further into debt, to purchase Swift tickets. For that Swift fan, though, it was more than worth it.
One X user questioned the idea of affordability in relation to concert tickets, suggesting it’s the new avocado toast.
Taylor Swift tickets are the new avocado toast
— Charlee Beckett (@expcharlee) November 9, 2023
Based on a quick Google search of various restaurants in the city, the average price of avocado toast in Vancouver is roughly $15, much cheaper than tickets to see Swift.
For context, the comparison comes from the idea that boomers have told millennials that if they give up on all the avocado toast or expensive lattes they consume, they’d be able to save more money on other commodities such as housing.
This is giving the old “give up Starbucks if you want a home so badly” vibes.
— KdC2017 (@KdCoates2017) November 9, 2023
We asked Philipp-Muller about the avocado toast comparisons.
“We can’t just expect every consumer to put every dollar away into savings and not seek entertainment or pleasure in some way. And when those sources of entertainment and pleasure like avocados and concert tickets end up costing really high amounts of money because of inflation and other economic reasons, it becomes a lot harder to save up money, even if you’re trying to save up the vast majority of [it].”
Are you in line to get tickets to see Swift in Vancouver?
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