What Sells in a Recession: Canned Goods and Condoms
What’s the last thing people want in a recession? More kids, apparently. According to data-tracking firm the Nielsen Co., dollar sales of products in the “family planning” category, which include condoms and over-the-counter female contraceptives, were up 10.2% for the first two months of this year. Unit sales were up 1.5%, which indicates that consumers are willing to pay higher prices today to prevent crib expenses tomorrow.
But economics alone can’t explain this protectionism. To cut expenses, consumers are going out less, a phenomenon retail analysts call cocooning. Among couples, cocooning can lead to canoodling, which can lead to … recreation. “People are spending a lot less on entertainment,” says Rick Shea, a branding expert and founder of Shea Marketing Consulting. “And ‘that,’ for the most part, is free.”
Nothing says more about the American mind-set than what consumers are buying, and ignoring, at drugstores, supermarkets and mass-merchandising outlets like Wal-Mart and Target. TIME asked the Nielsen Co. to identify the best- and worst-performing product categories during this recession, and the findings are quite revealing. In general, people are buying more food to prepare at home, a function of their eating out less often at restaurants, which are suffering. At the same time, they’re forsaking home furnishings and more discretionary items. “The American consumer is clearly getting back to basics,” says Todd Hale, Nielsen’s senior vice president of consumer and shopping insights. “The philosophy out there seems to be ‘If you can’t eat it, you don’t need it.’
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