Hit hard by the recession, Canadians are saving more and choosing low prices over good quality, according to Bensimon Byrne‘s latest Consumerology quarterly consumer survey.
Asked about purchasing priorities, two thirds of surveyed consumers said that “paying the lowest price” is very important. That’s up from a little over half of respondents who said the same in 2008.
All other product attributes have become less important: consumers care far less today about getting the best quality product (13 percentage point drop), getting a product they’re familiar with (5 point drop) or getting a Canadian-made product (17 point drop). Although a strong majority of Canadians (63%) said environmental impact was an important consideration in 2008, only 42% think so now.
Most consumers plan to keep their spending the same next year as this year (including those in higher income brackets), save as much as they can and pay down debts. They expect spending on essentials to rise, and plan to spend less on discretionary purchases like vacations, cosmetics and non-retirement investments. Seventy six per cent of consumers said they are “very concerned” about rising costs of living, more than retirement income (65%) or personal taxes (63%).
For more from the latest Consumerology report, see the infographic below.
Bensimon Byrne collected responses from an online survey of 1,500 Canadians. The survey sample is proportionate to the age, gender and regional distribution of the Canadian population.
