US Consumers Cutting back Spending

If you do a Google search about US Consumers cutting back their spending, you will see about 9.5 million results relating to this topic in 0.09 seconds. The results of the search provide myriad reasons for the cutback including the very obvious ones like rising energy costs, rising food prices, weak economy, weak job market etc to the more non obvious ones like Coke posting a loss due to consumer cutback, Starbucks posting its first ever loss because it is closing several stores because of weakening consumer demand for its $4 coffee and Cappuccinos.

US consumerism which has mostly focused on spending rather then saving might be in for a big shift. This might be bad news for the US economy, which is driven off of consumers spending their hard earned money on items that are good to have but are not a necessity. A Starbucks $4 Cup o Joe which seemed like a necessity during happier times may not seem that enticing now.

But will consumers go back to their old spending habits when the economy picks up again, it is hard to say. But there may be signs that point to a trend that this type of behavior may be here to stay for a while at-least.