The low-income groups in Brazil were not considered as a market for products and services (ROCHA, 2009). This view is modified after 1980, when studies addressing other issues than just material scarcity of these families arise (BARROS, ROCHA, 2007). Very little about these customers, which represent more than half of the Brazilian population, with about 100 million people is known until now (CHAUVEL, MATTOS, 2008). Recent marketing surveys about the low-income group s consumption habits can be found, mainly due to the increased purchasing power this segment has experienced in recent years, but the peculiarities of this group in relation to luxury have been little explored, despite the fact that the concept of luxury having been widely explored in literature (SOUZA et al., 2013). Its focus has always been placed on the upper strata of society (D ANGELO, 2004). The attempt to understand the meaning of luxury to low-income consumers is still little discussed in literature. This was the main motivation for choice of this theme for this study, which is based on the hermeneuticalapproach to understanding this meaning. To accomplish this, a small low-income community in the Southern part of the city of Rio de Janeiro was chosen to be the sample, where 13 in-depth interviews were conducted with both genders. The study findings reveal that the meaning of luxury varies according to the life history and the difficulties experienced by the person in his life. So, for those who have had a past marked by difficulties and by material shortages, luxury means power get comfort, as a general value assigned to all products obtained through their money and efforts. On the other hand, for those who never lived in plenty, but have never experienced the same restrictions, luxury is valued as differentiation, being assigned to products more expensive and often more difficult to have access to.