The New American Consumer Wants Value and is More Practical, According to BIGresearch study of 7,100 consumers

    COLUMBUS, Ohio--Jan. 14, 2002--The current economic environment has consumers pulling back some of their spending.
    In addition, they don't see the economy returning to normal until the second half of 2002, and many have changed some buying behaviors since September 11. That's according to the Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey conducted by BIGresearch, which interviewed over 7,100 consumers between January 6-10th.
    "It certainly looks as if the events of September 11 have had a profound effect on the types of products people are buying and their behavior patters. Consumers appear to be more grounded in their homes and more practical and less impulsive when purchasing products," said Joe Pilotta, Ph.D., vice president of research for BIGresearch. "If these patterns continue, it could have a profound effect on retail strategies developed for a pre-September 11 world," said Pilotta.
    Some key findings from the survey show that since September 11, 44.8 % of people are spending more time with family and 39.2% said they are more practical when making purchases, while only 5.6% said they are less practical and more impulsive.
    Regarding the current economic climate, 62.9 felt it would take from 6 months to more than a year for the economy to get back to normal. Cleveland's JEK Analytics economist Jack Kleinhenz, Ph.D. of JEK Analytics, an economic advisor to BIGresearch, argues that "consumer spending is growing-better than in past recessions-- but the extent of a potential rebound is unclear."
    Consumer confidence was static from the December numbers of 62.4% being confident or very confident vs. 61.8 in January. The general uncertainty towards the economy that consumers are feeling appears to have created a desire to put their financial houses in order, as expressed by their financial plans for the next 3 months, which are lead by paying down debt 46.3%, increasing savings 38.1%, and decreasing overall spending 37.5%.
    All is not lost for retailers; as the move on behalf of many consumers to spend more time with family has also created a desire to buy furniture, home appliances and electronics. Over the next 6 months, 17.6% plan on buying furniture, 14.7% home appliances and 20.1% TV's/VCR's/DVD's. In addition, 13.1% also plan on spending more on groceries and 18.4% on home improvement supplies over the next 90 days.
    Conventional wisdom holds that, in bad times one may tend to eat more sweets, starches, and comfort foods. However, this study shows quite the contrary. Since September 11th, consumers say they are eating more fruit, poultry, and vegetables, while eating significantly less red meat, starch, sweets and snack foods.
    "The current economic environment has created some hurdles for many retailers but discretionary purchasing power is improving due to lower energy prices. As incomes increase, consumers will return to normal spending patterns with some new precautions. Retailers, distributors, and supply chain vendors will just have to adjust to these new buying behaviors," said Kleinhenz

    About BIGresearch:

    BIGresearch gathers consumer market intelligence from one of the world's largest online communities that includes over 60 million people. BIGresearch's monthly syndicated Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey monitors the pulse of over 5000 consumers to uncover previously unknown, comprehensible, and actionable information in order to empower its clients with unique insights for identifying new opportunities in a fragmented and transitory marketplace. Complimentary top line findings are available at http://www.bigresearch.com/. The data is available for purchase from BIGresearch, which includes the ability to cross tab respondents by age, sex, zip code, geographic regions, retail store names, and all other data points.