Market Digest

At least two in five still say they are purchasing generic brands and brown bagging lunch

Over the past several years the dialogue and rhetoric within the news as well as in private conversations has revolved around the economy, household financial strain and ways to spend smarter and save more money.  This month, for almost the first time since 2009, Americans indicate less frequently that they are making certain small changes to save money.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,237 adults surveyed online between December 5 and 12, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

When asked about a list of 12 changes people could make to save money, fewer Americans say they “have done” each over the past six months than said so almost each time the questions have been asked since 2009.  Fairly high numbers still report making most changes, but the overall trend appears to be inching downward.  Some of the results include:

• 61% of U.S. adults say they have been purchasing more generic brands over the past six months which is down from the 67% who said so in June 2011;
• Two in five (42%) now say they are brown bagging lunch, which is a drop from the 45%-48% who reported this each time the question has been asked since June 2009;
• Americans also report switching to refillable water bottles rather than purchasing bottles of water (31%) and stopping purchasing coffee in the morning (17%) at the lowest levels seen since October 2009;
• In terms of media consumption, the fewest number of Americans now report cancelling one or more magazine subscriptions (25%), cancelling or cutting back on cable television service (21%) and cancelling a newspaper subscription (15%) in 26 months — since October 2009;
• While fewer Americans overall are, or have been, cancelling or changing their phone service (landline or mobile) to save money, some are — 14% for both landline cancelling and cell phone changing or cancelling — which is equal to or lower than the lowest percentages seen since early 2010;
• Over a third of Americans are still cutting back on going to the hairdresser, barber or stylist (37%) and one in five are cutting down on their dry cleaning (19%).  Both numbers are similar or lower than the numbers reported over the last two years; and,
• Only 13% now report carpooling or using mass transit, which is similar to the numbers of people who have said so before, however this number is less telling as in suburban or rural areas these may not be viable options.

So What?

These results may indicate one of two things — either, Americans have made many of these changes previously, so the numbers are dropping as these items are no longer seen as “new changes”, but rather the norm, or Americans are actually starting to spend money in some of these areas again.  A recent Harris Poll on economic predictions for the New Year seems to support the latter theory, as fewer Americans report plans to cut back their household spending in 2012, then said so in years prior.  While an increase in household spending and spending on the everyday items explored above would be good for the economy, the U.S. economic woes are unfortunately much more complicated and may require political action as well, if a full-scale recovery is to be achieved.