Consumers Change Buying Habits, But Will It Last?
Adrienne Radtke plans to keep riding her bike to work even if gas prices drop.
Steve Pizzini got rid of his Cadillac Escalade in favor of a 16-year-old Acura and doesn’t expect to have another gas-guzzler.
“I had a paradigm shift,” said Pizzini, a financial analyst. “I spent the money on a nice car. But to me, it’s not worth it. I don’t think I will go that route again.”
Every economic downturn changes shoppers in some way. But this time, experts say the new behavior — fueled by higher gas and food prices, tightening credit and a slumping housing market — are the most dramatic and widespread that they have seen since the mid-1970s.
So retailers, marketers and investors are all trying to figure out which habits shoppers will keep and which will they drop when the economy recovers. Will the people who switched to store-brand ice cream go back to Breyers or Edy’s? Will shoppers return to department stores or keep looking for labels at T.J. Maxx?
“We are looking at stuff that reminds me of the 1970s,” said Patricia Edwards of investment manager Wentworth Hauser and Violich. “Americans have seen a huge amount of their balance sheet evaporate. The effects will be more lingering.”
According to a survey released by market research company Nielsen Co., which tracks consumer habits, about two-thirds, or 63 percent, of consumers are cutting spending due to rising gas prices, up 18 percentage points from a year ago.
According to the study, which queried nearly 50,000 consumers by e-mail during the first week of June, 78 percent of them are combining shopping trips and 52 percent are eating out less often. Consumers are also cutting more coupons, doing more of their shopping at supercenters and buying less expensive brands, the survey found.
At the Alexandria Shoe Repair and Leather Service in Virginia, sales have increased 18 percent since February.
“I am seeing a younger crowd who lives in the disposable world,” said owner Barbara Steube. “They are learning an economics lesson. They will see the benefit of the savings and how much money they walk away with when they fix their shoes.”
Photo by Jacquelyn Martin.
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