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Consumers Cut Back on Discretionary Spending
May 02, 2008

According to the latest American Pulse Survey of 4,055 respondents, consumers are continuing to cut back on discretionary spending, forgoing activities such as dining out or going to the movie theater. The survey revealed 61.7 percent of respondents are dining out less, 57.3 percent are driving less, 47.4 percent are attending fewer movies, 46.1 percent are forgoing department stores for discount retailers and 45.3 percent are cutting back on their vacation budget to cope with the current economic environment. Consumers listed the following factors impacting their budgets "very much": gas prices (67.9 percent), groceries (47.2 percent), home heating and cooling costs (46.8 percent) and taxes (36.1 percent). According to the survey, half of Americans (50.3 percent) report having negotiated for better prices on products other than a home or vehicle in light of the current economic situation. Americans said they haggle the most for better costs on tires/batteries/auto repair (38.6 percent), followed by appliances (37.3 percent) and electronics (37.2 percent). The American Pulse Survey is collected online by BIGresearch every month exclusively utilizing Survey Sampling International's (SSI) U.S. panel covering topics such as politics, pop culture and the economy.

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