UK consumers are not happy – well a lot of them aren’t

Datamonitor has reported that 48% of participants in a recent survey believed they were worse off at present than was the case six months ago. Many respondents have moved beyond simply trading down to cheaper products, and are adopting a wide range of strategies in a bid to contain their expenditure levels.

More specifically, 43% of its panel were limiting the number of shopping trips they made to ensure they did not make too many "non-essential" purchases. 42% of contributors were reducing the amount of food and drink they wasted by taking a more restrictive approach both when in stores and at home.

Datamonitor was quoted as saying

"The recession has changed the way consumers shop, creating a far savvier shopper who is now completely re-thinking the way they spend their money"

"Retailers cannot count on shoppers reverting to old pre-recession behaviour."

This is all before the real cuts start to have an impact on the UK economy!

I thought this was an interesting development from Tesco. Instead of the boring old “Buy one get on free” offer it has started a "Buy one, get one free – later" deal.

This scheme enables people wanting to take part in two-for-one promotions to reclaim the second free product at a later date of their choosing.

"Customers really like our buy one get one free deals but feedback shows smaller households sometimes can't use the free product before its use-by date" So says a Tesco executive director.

I would think this offer will go down extremely well with the older customer. Really smart thinking Tesco.