Queue psychology and wealth

The scenes outside Apple stores on Friday morning were quite something. People queuing from two in the morning, camping overnight in humid September heat, fighting over queue positions – all for a phone. The iPhone 17 launch in India was like a tutorial in human psychology and financial priorities gone astray. I used to have an office directly above a store run by an Apple reseller, and the manager once shared a fascinating observation about customer behaviour. Almost all their sales, he told me, were for either the cheapest model or the most expensive one. The middle variants barely moved. It struck me then that this had nothing to do with functionality or features – it was entirely about status signalling. I suspect luxury car dealerships see exactly the same pattern. The cheapest iPhone buyers are often young people stretching every rupee, taking loans or EMIs they can barely