DIpil Das
What’s the Story?
This report presents the results of Coresight Research’s latest weekly survey of US consumers, undertaken on February 8. The report includes analysis of new questions on shopper behaviors and the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak, as well as questions on how consumers have used and plan to use their stimulus checks. We explore the trends we are seeing from week to week, following previous weekly surveys.How Consumers Used and Plan To Use Their Stimulus Checks
A second round of stimulus was approved in late December 2020 in the US. The passage of this round of stimulus authorized distribution of $600 dollar checks to individuals earning less than $75,000 per year, and a reduced stimulus for consumers earning up to $87,000. Later this winter, the US government may send out a second round of stimulus checks up to $1,400 per person. We asked consumers who had received a stimulus check—about two-thirds of respondents—how they used and plan to use their money, giving them 14 options (as well as “other” and “cannot remember”). We asked:- How they spent the money from their stimulus checks, or how they expect to spend it if they have not yet done so.
- How they expect to spend the money if the government issues a second round of stimulus.
Figure 1. Respondents That Had Received a Second Stimulus Check: How They Spent or Expect To Spend Their Second-Round Stimulus Checks, and How They Expect to Spend Any Third Round Stimulus Checks (% of Respondents) [caption id="attachment_123270" align="aligncenter" width="725"]
Respondents could select multiple options Base: US respondents aged 18+ who received a second stimulus check
Source: Coresight Research [/caption]
What Shoppers Are Buying and Which Retailers They Are Buying From
What Consumers Bought In-Store and Online This week, we saw sharp decreases in in-store purchases of essentials. Online shopping did not capitalize on the decline in in-store essentials shopping, and remains largely constant across major categories.- The proportion of consumers that reported buying food and beverages in-store dropped by 7.6 percentage points to 71.1%, the lowest percentage in two months.
- The three other major essentials categories (everyday household products, personal care products and health products) all also saw week-over-week declines of at least six percentage points and dropped to two-month lows.
- Online purchases of books, music and video games dropped by more than seven percentage points, falling to its lowest level in more than two months.
- The proportion of consumers that purchased home-improvement products in stores fell below 15% for the first time since December 8, as consumers reduced physical shopping—even in categories that have been generally strong throughout the pandemic.
Figure 2. All Respondents: What They Have Bought In-Store and Online in the Past Two Weeks (% of Respondents) [caption id="attachment_123271" align="aligncenter" width="725"]
Respondents could select multiple options Base: US respondents aged 18+
Source: Coresight Research [/caption] Which Retailers Consumers Purchased Food and Nonfood Products From Since December 21, 2020, we have asked consumers which retailers they bought from in the two-week period preceding the survey, for both food and nonfood products. For food purchases:
- Target and Amazon overtook Kroger to become the second and third most shopped at retailers for food products, respectively. This is only the second time that Amazon has climbed above Kroger, and the first time that Target has had more shoppers for food products than Kroger.
- Walmart extended its lead over other retailers: the proportion of consumers reporting having shopped at Walmart in the past two weeks rose by more than five percentage points to 46.9%.
- The proportion of consumers shopping at Whole Foods fell for a second straight week to a new low.
- While Amazon and Target both saw increases in food purchases, both retailers also saw the proportion of non-food shoppers decrease week over week.
- Kohl’s saw shopper numbers decline for the sixth straight week, from 17.3% on December 28, 2020, to 6.7% this week, even as Macy’s saw a slight bounce back in its proportion of shoppers.
- Dollar stores saw strong shopper numbers over the past two weeks: Dollar Tree/Family Dollar and Dollar General saw increases this week, with the proportion of shoppers at each rising to the highest values since January 4, 2021.
Figure 3. All Respondents: Which Retailers They Have Bought Food Products From and Which Retailers They Have Bought Nonfood Products From in the Past Two Weeks (% of Respondents) [caption id="attachment_123272" align="aligncenter" width="725"]
Respondents could select multiple options Base: US Internet users aged 18+
*Kroger banners include City Market, Fred Meyer, Harris Teeter, King Soopers, Kroger, Ralphs and Smith’s Food & Drug **Ahold Delhaize banners include Food Lion, Giant, Hannaford and Stop & Shop
***TJX banners include HomeGoods, HomeSense, Marshalls, Sierra and T.J. Maxx
Source: Coresight Research [/caption]
What Shoppers Are Doing and Where They Are Going
Consumers Appear Cautious Complementing our questions about purchases in the past two weeks, each week, we ask consumers what activities they have done in the past two weeks. This week, the proportion of respondents shrunk for nine of the twelve activities we asked about.- After recovering for three straight weeks, the proportion of consumers visiting restaurants fell by more than six percentage points this week, signaling that a sustained recovery in food-service spending is yet to come close to fruition.
- The proportion of consumers reporting going to an enclosed shopping center shrunk by nearly ten percentage points, but surprisingly even with this decline, the proportion that visited an enclosed shopping center rose for the third straight week.
- Consumers appear unwilling to plan vacations as virus concerns remain even as new case numbers decline. The proportion of consumers reporting that they had arranged a trip in the past two weeks shrunk to 6.9%, the lowest value since December 1.
Figure 4. All Respondents: What Activities They Have Done in the Past Two Weeks (% of Respondents) [caption id="attachment_123273" align="aligncenter" width="725"]
Respondents could select multiple options Base: US respondents aged 18+
Source: Coresight Research [/caption] Nearly 85% of Consumers Are Currently Avoiding Public Places In this week’s survey, the avoidance rate of any type of public area stood at 84.7%, versus 83.5% last week and 81.9% two weeks ago. Like last week, although avoidance of any public area rose for the third straight week, avoidance rates were down week over week in 11 of the 13 location options provided.
- Avoidance of last week’s three most commonly avoided public places (shopping centers; restaurants, bars and coffee shops; and international travel) all fell by more than seven percentage points this week.
- Avoidance of shops in general dropped drastically, falling below the 40% mark for the first time since October.
- Only medical centers and grooming services saw increases in avoidance—and even these changes were within the margin of error.
- After rising to a record high of 57.3% two weeks ago, avoidance of entertainment and leisure venues dropped sharply to just 40.7%, the lowest value recorded in approximately one month.
Figure 5. All Respondents: Public Places That Respondents Are Currently Avoiding (% of Respondents) [caption id="attachment_123274" align="aligncenter" width="725"]
Respondents could select multiple options Base: US respondents aged 18+
Source: Coresight Research [/caption]
Reviewing Trend Data in Current Purchasing Behavior
What Consumers Are Currently Buying More Of and Less Of The proportion of consumers buying more of any product rose by nearly 15 percentage points to 58.0% this week, the highest levels seen since before the holidays. Somewhat surprisingly, even as the proportion of consumers purchasing more of any product climbed substantially, the proportion of consumers buying less of any product due to the pandemic remained almost constant week over week.- Buying more in any category and buying less in any category were not mutually exclusive options, so respondents could answer yes to both.
- The ratio of buying less to more for clothing and footwear fell again this week, dropping to 2.33 from 5.3 last week
- The ratio for furniture rose from 0.7 last week to 2.6 this week, as an increasing number of consumers reported purchasing less furniture.
- The ratio for beauty products fell from 4.5 last week to 2.27 this week.
Figure 6. All Respondents: What They Are Currently Buying More/Less Of Due to the Coronavirus Outbreak (% of Respondents) [caption id="attachment_123275" align="aligncenter" width="725"]
Base: US respondents aged 18+ Source: Coresight Research [/caption]
What We Think
Although Covid-19 cases in the US continue to decline, this week we saw a stall in recovery for consumers returning to regular activities. The proportion of consumers avoiding any public area rose for the third straight week, potentially reflecting consumers’ wariness of new virus variants, despite ongoing vaccination efforts. Furthermore, while stimulus checks have put more money in consumers’ pockets, most consumers plan to spend checks on essentials and bills, indicating that discretionary purchases are unlikely to spike as a result of the government payments. Our recurring weekly questions indicated the following:- Avoidance of Public Places: While the proportion of consumers avoiding any public area rose, we saw sharp decreases in the proportion of consumers avoiding certain areas that they had typically stayed away from in recent weeks: avoidance of shops in general dropped by more than 14 percentage points, sparking some optimism for consumers’ return to stores.
- In-Store Shopping: After large proportions of consumers last week reported going to outdoor shopping centers and restaurants, this week those numbers fell substantially, indicating that a sustained recovery in food-service and in-store spending remains a long way off.
- Essentials: Consumers stepped up their purchases of essentials this week, as grocery, household products and personal care products all saw sharp increases in the percentage of consumers reporting buying more due to the pandemic. Walmart was able to capitalize on the increased purchasing of essentials: the proportion of consumers that reported shopping at Walmart for both food and non-food products each increased by around five percentage points this week.