So, what did we learn from executives in the hard-hit luxury and main street retail sectors this week at the Reuters summits?

The idea of a “new normal” age of lower consumerism was in vogue, with many executives expecting consumers to continue to be thrifty for some time. Conspicuous consumption may be dead, they say.

Heck, even Tiffany’s is attracting hagglers.

Even the Saks CEO is “Staycationing” in the downturn.

Of course, not everyone is cutting back, so Hermes still needs supplies of crocodile hides to make $35,000 handbags. The company’s solution? Breed its own.

The word “bottom” was also bandied about. Executives were hesitant to say the economy had definitely hit bottom. But many did see some leveling off. EBay CEO John Donahoe, for example, said he has seen some stabilization in demand, as did VF Corp CEO Eric Wiseman.

Taittinger chief Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger isn’t even concerned about the bottom line. Just bottoms up.

And about those young American women with the word “Juicy” on their sweatpants bottom? We may not be seeing that as much, said Juicy Couture President Edgar Huber.

Oh, and designer Jonathan Adler, who is hoping to make his store a “crack den of adorableness” during the holidays has his own way of generating sales: a $48 banana bud vase that he says is “so wrong.”

With one high-profile female Silicon Valley CEO swapping her executive office for a more political challenge, another — VMWare co-founder Diane Greene — says she’s sticking around.

I have built VMware. I am really excited about where we are going to be able to take this company and I am quite engaged in doing that. I am here for the foreseeable future.

I feel like we have been through several stages in VMware’s existence. Products-wise we are in a position now where every CIO appreciates what we do and knows that they can trust us, and puts us in a position where we have a pretty exciting future.

However, after running the show at VMWare since founding it a decade ago, its hard to avoid the comparison between Green and Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay.

Whitman stepped down this year, sticking to her mantra that any CEO in charge for more than 10 years has overstayed their usefulness.

Whitman has since been running her family’s foundation, and continues to be talked about as a possible candidate for anything from the California Governor’s seat to a higher office in Washington.

Not so for Greene. At the Reuters Technology Media and Telecoms Summit, she stated plainly…

…I am not planning to be Governor of California.

(Photo: Reuters)