Price-conscious consumers emerge from recession

Consumers may be emerging from the Great Recession a little more willing to spend these days, but they’re still incredibly price-conscious and making smaller, more frequent purchases rather than loading up on costlier bulk goods, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The bargain hunting is a boon to some retailers, such as deep-discount grocery stores, and a growing problem for others, like big-box department stores. That’s according to a new 2010 “megatrends” study released on Tuesday from New York-based WSL Strategic Retail, a consultancy.

Shoppers are “making more stops to more stores,” said the group’s president, Candace Corlett, and doing far more of their shopping online -– a behavioral shift accelerated by the recession.
Supermarkets such as Kroger or Wegman’s and supercenters like Walmart are still the top two retail “channels” with 64% of Americans shopping there over the past three months. Department stores such as Macy’s slipped to the No. 5 position, just behind dollar stores, which were patroned by some 20% of Americans.

The clear winner in the survey, however, is online shopping, ranked #3 in the findings with nearly half of women –- 47% — shopping online in the last quarter and 24% shopping online each week, up from 10% who did so in 2008. The internet “has become the go-to channel to find the lowest prices and coupons,” according to WSL. Growth in online shopping, dollar stores and “deep-discount” grocery like Sav-a-Lot threaten to diminish the popularity of supercenters like Walmart, said WSL chief executive Wendy Liebmann in the release.

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