From Guzzling to Rationing
Allan Santiago
Posted on: 9/4/08 Section: Opinion
Those of us who have to keep close tabs on our spending are becoming even more careful. There are many stories on how gasoline prices have become a reason to adjust your lifestyle.
Consumers have attempted to maintain a behind-the-wheel lifestyle; so much as to keep demand for gas up even with rising prices, as was the case last summer, according to reports.
How so? The answer is as frightening as a gas pump meter when filling up: credit, another avenue by which consumers are sometimes forced to make sacrifices.
The fact that now fewer miles are driven on the road, and people are actually looking deeper into how much they consume seems exiting.
The number of carpooling vehicles are going up; cyclists are becoming as common to the eye as those in cars; not to mention the fact that industries are being forced to adapt new marketing strategies to a brighter, more aware consumer.
Not until this summer have significant shifts in consumer spending become cause for scrutiny.
Nearly two in five American consumers said they reduced spending in June due to higher gas prices, according to a new national survey released by America's Research Group (ARG).
In the same month, 22 percent of shoppers postponed a purchase of $599 or more, compared with only 13.7 percent who said they delayed buying a big-ticket item in June 2006.
What that means is that gasoline is not the only thing consumers are holding back on.
Over 65 percent of shoppers say they have noticed significant price increases in food, up from only 53 percent earlier this spring, according to the ARG report.
Consumers should not stop at simply driving less, but should buy a bicycle, or better yet walk. Cars will never be out of the picture, but the near future will probably have everyone using multiple forms of transportation, and hopefully that could be the new norm.
Consumers have attempted to maintain a behind-the-wheel lifestyle; so much as to keep demand for gas up even with rising prices, as was the case last summer, according to reports.
How so? The answer is as frightening as a gas pump meter when filling up: credit, another avenue by which consumers are sometimes forced to make sacrifices.
The fact that now fewer miles are driven on the road, and people are actually looking deeper into how much they consume seems exiting.
The number of carpooling vehicles are going up; cyclists are becoming as common to the eye as those in cars; not to mention the fact that industries are being forced to adapt new marketing strategies to a brighter, more aware consumer.
Not until this summer have significant shifts in consumer spending become cause for scrutiny.
Nearly two in five American consumers said they reduced spending in June due to higher gas prices, according to a new national survey released by America's Research Group (ARG).
In the same month, 22 percent of shoppers postponed a purchase of $599 or more, compared with only 13.7 percent who said they delayed buying a big-ticket item in June 2006.
What that means is that gasoline is not the only thing consumers are holding back on.
Over 65 percent of shoppers say they have noticed significant price increases in food, up from only 53 percent earlier this spring, according to the ARG report.
Consumers should not stop at simply driving less, but should buy a bicycle, or better yet walk. Cars will never be out of the picture, but the near future will probably have everyone using multiple forms of transportation, and hopefully that could be the new norm.
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