Will People Continue To Spend?

March 30, 2008

According to "How America Shops," a bi-annual shopper study by retail marketing consultancy WSL Strategic Retail, New York, 65% of consumers in the $40,000-$75,000 income group said they are watching what they spend on other things since they cannot control gas prices and mortgage payments.

65% seems awfully low to me within this income demographic. I am not in this income demo and I can say that I will be watching what I spend on. My spending is much more deliberate with more infrequent moments of splurging (though it still happens). I believe that people will still spend on life's luxuries, whatever that may be to that person. To me, it might be a watch - to someone else it might be a better brand of beer or Starbucks vs. Cafeteria coffee. My theory is that people do not want to feel defeated. They want to feel in control even if they can't control oil prices or the credit crisis. Hopefully, the spending won't get America deeper in credit debt as a result.

Posted at 03:07 PM in Marketing In A Recession | Permalink

Technorati Tags: credit crunch, gas prices, retail spending, WSL Strategic Retail

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