To weather the recession and keep a closer eye on spending long-term, a significant number of Americans are picking up shopping practices that resemble those of Depression-era Americans, according to a recent study.
Many consumers are permanently changing their diet, self care and home maintenance rituals,revealed "Dissecting the Downturn Generation: Recognizing and Leveraging Permanence in Today's Transformational Economy,"by IRI.
Retailers and product makers should take one of three emerging types of shoppers: Optimists who believe "things will get better in the next 12 months' and are spending wisely, cutting back selectively and making sacrifices as a last resort; Maintainers who believe "the economy won't get worse, but it wont get better either" and are more aggressively cutting back' and Pessimists who believe "if you think times are tough now, next year will be worse" and are cutting back wherever possible and hunting tirelessly to find deals.
Interestingly, even though gasoline prices are down as much as 50 percent from last fall's peak, 73 percent of the people surveyed said rising gas prices 'impacted" or "strongly impacted" their financial situation during the past six months. Three-fourths said rising food prices "impacted" or "strongly impacted" their financial situation, even though food pries have largely leveled off or declined since summer 2008, according to the report.
Little surprise then, that low prices and sale items dominate shopper decisions. How this translates to the c-store industry, remains to be seen. But competitive street prices and efforts to deliver better values in the store will be more important than ever.
Two-for-$1 hot dog specials anyone?
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