Consumers are Changing: Hopefully for the Better

It seems we may actually have some frugal Americans now that there is so much food and fuel inflation out there.

Every economic downturn changes shoppers in some way. But this time, experts say the new behavior — fueled by higher gas and food prices, tightening credit and a slumping housing market — are the most dramatic and widespread that they have seen since the mid-1970s.

So retailers, marketers and investors are all trying to figure out which habits shoppers will keep and which will they drop when the economy recovers. Will the people who switched to store-brand ice cream go back to Breyers or Edy's? Will shoppers return to department stores or keep looking for labels at T.J. Maxx?

Perhaps Americans are finally understanding that they are spending lots of money they don't have on junk they don't need. They could be finally waking up to the fact that they are causing alot of the worlds problems by driving a huge car and wasting too much electricity heating their giant McMansion.

I mean if Americans took the lead in living a frugal life instead of consuming so many of the worlds resources maybe the rest of the world will follow suit. It isn't our God-given right to drive a massive gas guzzling SUV or a Full Sized Truck to eat a huge pile of food at Dennys. Maybe people are making due with less and are actually liking how they are feeling when they do it. I mean saving lots of money or getting a good deal has always given me a great feeling of accomplishment.

I think someone should start a "Live Within Your Means Movement" where people make due with only the essentials in life like nourishing food, adequate transportation, decent shelter, enough clothes to make due, and enough distractions so they don't freak out. All the rest can be saved for a rainy day or passed on to someone who needs it more. The person who can do the most good with the least amount wins some kind of award.

Now all we need to do is get rid of the My Sweet 16, the Hills, and the Do-Nothings of Orange County fetishization of wealth. This so-called "wealth porn" just shows how badly Americans can waste money on frivolous crap instead of using it to do some good. I think the nasty, dumb, and wasteful Americans depicted on these shows is one of the reasons why Al-Quida wants to kill us.

So I hope this slowdown makes some teenagers say "the money from that brats Sweet 16 party they could have fed 10,000 kids" instead of saying "I wish my party could be be like that." It would be nice for people to think of a trophy wife in Orange County as a pathetic drain on the worlds resources instead of something they need to emulate.