Although economic recovery finally seems to be taking root in the U.S., consumers remain cautious when it comes to spending their money. And many analysts believe that shopping behavior that has changed during the recession is permanent. One factor backing up that premise is the continued upswing in coupon use after years of declines.

American shoppers have a huge range of options when choosing where to shop, from convenience and dollar stores to traditional grocery and drug stores to warehouse clubs and supercenters.  Who shops where? And what are they buying?  These are just a couple of the questions answered by Nielsen’s “U.S. Consumer Dynamics Across Channels & Categories” study released earlier this month.
On a dollar volume basis, grocery stores continue to capture the highest percentage of consumer dollars, with 33.1 percent.  In Grand Rapids, Michigan, groceries …

Every day, shoppers walk into a store to find that the price of a favorite item has gone up.  These price increases drove dollar growth for retail sales within food, drug and mass merchandisers to 3.6 percent in the 52-week period ending 1/24/2009, although sales slowed in the last quarter.  Much of that growth, however, was driven by inflationary pricing as both retailers and manufacturers raised prices due to rapidly escalating commodity costs.  Every department – except general merchandise – showed dollar …

As consumers work hard to make their money go further, stores are feeling a hit.  But supercenters are actually benefiting.  Nielsen’s analysis of 2008 unit sales shows that nearly every department in supercenters showed growth, including dairy, dry grocery and prescription drugs.  In fact, the supercenter channel was the only retail channel to post overall unit sales growth, albeit a modest one percent.
“Mass merchandisers and grocery stores are feeling the impact of the supercenter,” said Todd Hale, senior vice president, Consumer & Shopper Insights for Nielsen.  “While the grocery channel …

Despite the slowing economy, new product introductions in 2008 remained steady compared to 2007.  According to a new Nielsen report, 122,743 new UPCs were sold through U.S. grocery, drug and mass merchandiser channels, excluding Walmart. Of these, 39 percent were food and beverage items, 29 percent were general merchandise items such as DVDs, 20 percent were health and beauty items with the remaining 12 percent non-food grocery items such as paper products, diapers and detergent.
Of the more than 122,000 items introduced, 3,882 (3.2%) achieved more than $1 million in sales, …

According to Nielsen, trips to U.S. retail outlets decreased by 1.4% in the third quarter of 2008, compared with Q3 2007. 
Declines were especially steep during the last four weeks of the quarter, which saw the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the near-collapse of Merrill Lynch, and the government bailout of AIG.
Traditional mass retailers (excluding supercenters), department stores, and office supply stores saw the most dramatic declines in the number of shopping trips last quarter vs. a year ago.  Trips to mass retailers dropped by 9.1%, trips to department stores were down …

Nielsen is forecasting sales of more than $98 billion for the November-December 2008 holiday retail season.  But amid worsening economic conditions, U.S. consumers are likely to be more cautious than ever with their spending. 
A recent Nielsen survey of 21,000 U.S. households found that 35% plan to spend less this year than they did in 2007.  Just 6% will spend more this year, while 50% say they’ll maintain the same level of spending from 2007.
Lower-income households reported large reductions in their holiday spending — but so did high income households.  In all, 37% …

This year, U.S. consumers are expected to spend more than $98 billion during the November-December holiday retail season, Nielsen reported Thursday.
Nielsen’s holiday retail forecast predicts a 4.7% gain in dollar sales over 2007.  Unit sales, however, are expected to be virtually flat (-0.8%) versus a year ago.
The forecast includes projected sales at food stores, drug stores, mass merchandisers, and convenience stores, across 125 product categories tracked by Nielsen.
With the economy in turmoil, the 2008 holiday season will be closely watched for indications of declining consumer spending.  Declines in consumer spending were …