Epidemic of store/restaurant closings in the news. How have your spending habits changed?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Apparently, America has decided it’s tired and wants to stay home. With the almost daily stories of the retail apocalypse, numerous restaurant closings, and plummeting auto sales, it seems apparent that a sea change is underway in the way consumers spend and entertain themselves. I’m curious what spending changes dopers have personally made in the last several years. Entertainment-wise, what are you (and/or family) doing differently than 5 or 10 years ago? What prompted the change?

I’ll go first. In the past several years I’ve noticed the following changes in our habits.

  1. We’ve quit going to movies. The combination of streaming, cheap flatscreen TVs, ridiculous refreshment prices, and annoying crowd behavior has driven me away.

  2. We almost never eat out anymore. The hassle has outpaced the pleasure for us. We’ve added to our kitchen(s) and our skill, such that we can approximate most restaurant dinners without the hassle and the exorbitant price of drinks. We can also have that 3rd (or 4th) glass of wine without worry, and I don’t have to tip.

  3. Shopping is mostly online now. Our local mall has been the scene of two BLM (or related) disturbances and two murders, so my enthusiasm for “going into town” to shop is pretty low. I’ve also grown weary of retailers adopting “causes” and hassling me for contributions at checkout. (“Would you like to contribute, or show everyone in line you don’t care about wounded veteran firefighters?”)

  4. Outings and trips have changed as well. Almost all our journeys are short outings on the boat, or longer ones in the RV. We visit lots of monuments, parks and quiet shorelines but rarely venture into towns, even on vacation. I guess we’re outliers as far as the auto sales meltdown, as we’re driving more miles than ever.
    Regarding the enormous changes in the retail landscape, how have your spending habits changed? Our were not planned boycotts, but gradual matters of convenience. I’m curious what has changed for other dopers.

2

I am retired and just slightly below median income for my area. Car is paid off and rent below average. I feel like restaurants, movies and other forms of entertainment have just gotten too expensive. I do these things at about 25% of what I used to do. Maybe 4 movies a year and about the same for medium priced restaurants. Coffee shops and breakfast places maybe twice a month.

3

It’s changed some. We never did go to movies very often. The theater is 45 minutes away. And for some crazy reason, even loud blockbuster movies put me to sleep at a matinee. Aggravating as I have no problem watching movies at home.

We would have lunch, and go to the movie. Add that to 1-1/2 hours of driving and it becomes an all day event.

I buy pretty much everything online. We don’t get mail delivery, so I got a UPS box in town. They will take UPS and FedX and regular mail. Much easier than our USPS box which we are planning on getting rid of.

Buying online has been the biggest change. I hate to shop, don’t need to browse. I know my size and what I want. I wouldn’t even know where to get a pair of Levi’s in this county. Or if indeed you can.

4

What prompted the change was going from an income comfortable enough for not only movies, restaurants, and shopping but also flying airplanes as a hobby to zero. Thanks, layoffs and Great Recession!

When I finally got steady employment again it still left me at the poverty line so, not only no airplanes but also no shopping, no restaurants, and no movies.

It’s basically that simple - I no longer have the money to spend on anything but the barest essentials.

While this is not a factor in all cases tens of millions of people fall into a similar situation as mine. There have been warnings for the better part of a decade that keeping peoples’ wages low would have a knock-on effect. There it is.

5

We aren’t retired, although we can see it from here. We live in a semi-rural area. It used to be very rural, but has increased in population over the decades. I don’t know if I’ll actually retire or not; we can always use the income as long as possible and that decision is still a few years away.

Wow, the changes in your family sound pretty much like the changes in mine.

We rarely go shopping anymore, and do most shopping online. The obvious exception, of course, is groceries, although even that can increasingly be done with online orders and pick up (or delivery).

We haven’t been to a theater in years. It’s expensive, you have limited choices, and you often have to endure sizable adolescent herds with whom you have nothing in common.

There is absolutely no reason to get caught up in the hassle of driving to the nearest city, large or small, and having to devise elaborate strategies about parking and lugging your purchases around to get to the nearest parking garage or bus stop. In fact, few of all but the largest cities offer anything of interest other than the occasional trendy restaurant or bar or niche shop. Even that loses its attraction after you reach a certain age, and you find yourself weighing the value of going into a city just to sample the latest trendy food offering.

Of course, there’s always the quaintness factor, but how long can that keep you interested once the novelty is gone? Aside from museums and artsy venues, there’s not much to keep you coming back regularly unless you are oriented to those sorts of things or work in the arts.

There are certainly changes in the way we do business and interact (or not), and we have the luxury of being more choosy about how and when we deal with others.

It’s now within the reach of most people to install kitchens with enough bells and whistles to produce a great meal and, if you like being an amateur chef, you have access to restaurant quality food that you can prepare yourself. That’s just one example of how things have changed and how leisure time changes the way we do things.

Same with home entertainment systems. Most systems, even the cheap ones, are pretty good. It’s easy to get one, if you so desire, and it’s no longer the domain of the wealthy only. Plus you get to relax in a friendly environment, come and go as you please, and have more viewing options.

It is wealth and leisure time that makes these things possible. I’m not talking about personal wealth. Rather, the innovation, invention, and supply chain that creates wealth, affordability, and brings better goods to market to make life easier and increase choice. We now have time-saving and life-saving materials and devices that middle class people of 50 years ago could only dream about.

Like the OP, we like our quiet pleasures and having more choices about when and where to put our time, energy, and resources. It is extremely liberating.

6

I always liked watching movies at home rather than in a theater and things haven’t really changed much there.

Never drank in bars–things haven’t changed there–but I eat at restaurants less often than I did 15 years ago. I also shop less at brick and mortar stores than I used to (not sure why–maybe I don’t find shopping interesting any more). The big change in my shopping habits is books–I used to practically live in book stores but now I get most of my books online. The exception to this is antique stores, where I frequently find bargains on books (I recently got a book of Shakespeare’s plays for $10.)

7

I’d say my spending is dictated more by work than anything else. Over the past year and a half, I’ve been working more than I would like due to us being short staffed. That has changed as of a couple months ago, I’m maxed out on vacation hours so I am going to be taking some more time off and can’t work 48 hour weeks all the time.

I’ll be hitting more movies this summer since I’m now off on Fridays. I don’t have a problem with the cost of movies, but I do try to avoid them on Friday and Saturday nights. Friday afternoon matinees are perfect.

I do order almost everything online, for convenience. The doorman at my apartment building signs for all packages and keeps them in a secure storage area for me to pick up at my convenience. I do order groceries online and only pick up a few things at Whole Foods.

I enjoy going out to restaurants during the weekend. I probably don’t eat out as much recently since my favorite place was damaged by a fire. Hopefully, they’ll reopen soon. Working second shift helps me avoid spending more money than I’d like on lunches out, and I’d much rather spend that money on a decent dinner than an overpriced lunch.

8

Nothing much has changed for me. Then again, I/we’ve never been much of a movie goer or shopping mall habitué.

We eat out often, any of the three meals. One thing that has changed, partly as a result of society’s changing attitudes to DUI and partly due to our increasing age, is that one drink split between us with dinner is plenty. 25 years ago it would be 2 each or sometimes 3 for me & 2 for her.

I spend about $200 per year on online shopping. Up from $0 in about 2015. So while I’m not depriving my local B&M stores of much in an absolute sense, it’s still a decent chunk of my total non-grocery + non-restaurant spend. I predict that percentage is going nowhere but up over time.

I buy expensive furniture, but it lasts 20+ years. I buy expensive cars, but they last 15+ years. It happens both of those are approaching time for a hefty lump of spending. Even so it’ll be spread over 2 or 3 years.

Living where I do I see people far richer than me every day, The folks with 2 Rolls in the garage here and 2 more at their summer home up North. To all indications those people are doing very nicely, thank you. Talking to the staff at restaurants and stores catering to that crowd they’re all partying and spending like there’s no tomorrow. The present system is working for them just fine.

I also see plenty of working poor just on the other side of the tracks. Folks driving ratty 1990s GMs & Nissans. Those people are in deep shit and it’s getting worse.

The middle class simply isn’t anymore. It’s in freefall. That’s where the bulk of consumer retail happens. If we finish converting most of Ordinary America into quasi working poor we’re going to see a plague across the land as bad as the Dust Bowl. But it’ll be a man-made plague of dead retail, not a nature-made plague of dead crops and dead farms.

9

I agree, I’ve always preferred to watch movies at home, and I was just saying to my husband the other night that I can’t justify sitting in a bar and paying outrageous prices for drinks when I can do it in the comfort of my own home. As far as eating out, if anything we are more likely to order takeout. The last time we ate out was about 2 months ago and truthfully, I would’ve been more content at home.

10

We radically altered our spending habits in the last couple of years, even though they were fairly modest to begin with. We are taking early retirement and will be living very close to the bone; in preparation we aligned our spending habits to match the retirement amount. We used to eat out 3-5 times a week (very affordable local places), now maybe one time a month, never went to the movies so no change there, we use the library more now for dvds and books, and we drink at home, although far less than we used to.

11

Each of us needs to be careful to distinguish what, e.g. 40 year old us did 20 years ago and what 40 year olds are doing today.

IOW, our behavior today is part and parcel of both our age and of the realities of 2017.

e.g. I sure see plenty of 20-somethings *en masse *out drinking and carousing & driving too fast and wearing trendy clothes and ordering trendy cocktails. Things I don’t do in 2017 but I sure did when I was their age back in 1983.

What any of us individually have changed in the last couple years is probably more a matter of the times than of increasing age. Over 15 years the opposite is probably true. The Dope is real short on trendy 20-somethings to give us their idea of ground truth.

I recall over in Elections there was a thread from about March where somebody posted a newspaper’s web article about a poll by a legit pollster. The question was essentially: “How is the US economy doing?” The results were that pretty much all the R voters thought it was booming. Pretty much all the D voters thought is was in a recession.

Some of that difference can be put down to the nugget of truth in the center of the overblown BS cliché that “Republicans = rich fatcats, democrats = poor welfare recipients”.

But what about the so-called angry white working class of Trumply fame? Why are they suddenly proclaiming the economy is booming? How many D voters are doing OK but are scared and not spending not because they don’t have it, but because they’re scared of where they think things are going>

12

I didn’t have a car for a year or so and started ordering online out of sheer necessity. But I dislike crowds and being stuck behind slow people, and quickly realized that ordering on Amazon while lying on my couch is far more pleasant. Plus I can read multiple reviews to take advantage of the hive mind, and let items linger for months or even years while I dither about spending money on myself.

Clothing esp. shoes can be a gamble sometimes but that’s what the “free returns” filter is for. :slight_smile:

13

I’ve been actually thinking about this quite a bit lately, because I have noticed the same glaring and depressing headlines about some old guard retailers, such as Sears and JC Penney, as well as other retailers and some chain restaurants closing. I’ve also noticed that there is a major difference in attitude towards this when comparing my 20 year old daughter, myself (41), and my 63 year old mother in law.

My daughter could give a crap less about going to a chain retailer or restaurant for the most part. if it has what she wants, then she will go there or order from there. She has no problem spending money to eat out when she cannot make something she wants at home, but also appreciates the value of cooking at home. She’s also just as apt to order something from Amazon or another online retailer as she is to go to a B&M store, if not more. In a few minutes she can find online what may take her an hour to find in-store. She also is in no rush to get her driver’s license and a car. She is adept at using public transport when available, and plans on living in cities with good public transport options available. Many of her friends are in the same boat. I have also noticed that they far value experiences over possessions.

My mother in law is very opposite. She prefers going into stores, touching and feeling things, and buying on price, regardless of quality. When she eats out, it is almost exclusively at chain restaurants, because they are reliable to her. She has driven some sort of SUV/ crossover for close to 20 years now, though all of her kids are long out of the house, and she does not have any real need for this, other than big=safe to her. She has no desire to travel abroad, and when she vacations, it is to the same places she has usually gone.

My wife and I are an interesting hybrid. We do enjoy having “stuff” that we want, but have really focused our purchasing of material goods on either practical goods, or things that are distinctly hobby related, such as her crafting stuff, and my painting and brewing stuff. We have definitely moved from a focus on stuff to a focus on experience. We do eat out regularly (2-3 times a week), but will vary this from chain to independent restaurants, basically, whatever sounds good. As far as drinking goes, I will actually buy drinks at restaurants more now than I have in the past, but those are usually when I am at a local brewery/ taphouse/ winery. I rarely order wine or beer at a chain because it’s usually way overpriced. My wife prefers to buy all of her clothing in a B&M store, where I have no problem ordering from an online retailer.

One thing that we have definitely changed over time is valuing higher priced quality goods over lower priced goods of inferior quality. We’ll save to spend a little more on a Weber gas grill than a Charbroil that costs half as much, because the Weber will last 3-4 times as long. Same thing with cars, lawnmower, etc… even down to plants for the garden. I would rather spend a little more for quality at a local garden center than for something from Home Depot.

I think that what it boils down to is that for a long time businesses have dictated tastes and options to the consumer, and younger generations of consumers are not allowing that as much. They are finding their own ways to satisfy their tastes and habits, whether it be online shopping, going to more artisan restaurants and pubs, ordering books online, or finding more affordable transportation options. It’s up to the business to adapt, not the consumer.

14

A Gander Mountain opened near us two years ago. We’ve talked about stopping and checking it out, but I recently noticed that they are closing. And really, that is just fine with me. If I need an “outdoors” item, I automatically look on Amazon, where my choices exceed what a brick/mortar store can display. Rarely do I need an item so quickly that I cannot wait for Amazon to deliver it.

Movies? I’d rather watch them on my iPad.

Now, restaurants we love. We’ve gone from eating out one night a week to eating out 3 or 4 times a week.

15

I haven’t been to a movie in a movie theater for over ten years. Between the rudeness of the crowds and the tendency for me to get a migraine from the lights and noise, it’s not worth it. I’ve also become incredibly introverted and picky about who’s around me, so I’m simply not comfortable in places like malls.

I have zero desire to eat at a chain restaurant, where the food will be meh to crappy and the drinks overpriced and not great.

Now, will I happily spend a good amount of cash on a great meal? Yes. And it won’t be at a fancy place or a chain restaurant. Do I spend time with people? Yep.

I shop online because I can find the specific item I want. I can’t go into Macy’s and ask for a “straight, tweed, knee-length skirt” because the staff always looks at me blankly and says, “I dunno, we have some skirts there”, and then they motion vaguely.

I’d rather spend a Saturday night reading by the wood stove than going out. I’m exciting. :slight_smile:

16

Ever since I quit drinking and my cardiologist forced me into a low-sodium diet, restaurants don’t hold the same appeal to me as before. I get my books in digital form, and movies come through a wire. When I miss a line of script, I can go back to hear it again, an option not available in a theater.

17

Interesting cohort responding to this thread. My wife and I are mid-50s. Plenty of $ to spend on pretty much whatever we want, with just about every store imaginable within 30 minutes of our home.

I am also among the group who prefers home videos over theaters, and infrequently eats out. We have a standing date to see an “art” film at the local theater once a month. I HATE the other nearby theaters which have switched to reserved seating. My preference was to go to the theater ahead of time, and wait in the line for tickets granting general admission. (And I personally do not care for the lounge chairs.)

While I generally hate shopping, I prefer going to a store and seeing the merchandise, over dealing w/ a computer interface, and having to return the product if it isn’t what I wanted/expected.

We have long ordered from firms like Eddie Bauer, LL Bean. But we prefer doing that over the phone rather than computer. As an old fogey Luddite, I’m not a huge fan of most on-line commercial interfaces. Just yesterday we bought ourselves sun hats at REI. We went into the store and tried on all of the different hats. No idea how someone would do that on-line.

One factor, tho, is the decline of knowledgeable staff in stores. We’ve tried to call to see if a product was in stock. More often than not, the person on the phone is clueless. In such instances, we might order on-line rather than driving to the store. Another factor is if I’m ordering a known commodity, where quality or comparing alternatives is not an issue. In such cases, I might order on-line instead of making a special trip to the store.

We place a great emphasis on shopping locally whenever practical, even if it involves paying a slight premium.

But I see Peapod trucks pull up to my neighbors’ houses, and UPS boxes piling up on their stoops, so at least SOME folk seem to be changing their practices more than I.

18

With an Amazon fulfillment center less than 10 miles away, we rarely go shopping for anything but groceries anymore. Like everybody else, a home theater system, streaming video and a home bar makes going to the movies a very rare event. Few movies demand that I see them now. We still like going out to dinner, but I don’t think we’ve eaten at a chain restaurant in months. Too many good locally-owned places to enjoy.

Hell, Amazon Prime has even impacted our grocery shopping. I can get stuff from all over the country that the local Von’s just doesn’t carry, like Duke’s mayonnaise.

19

I’m 46 and Theodore Striker’s post sums it up pretty well for me.

We are willing to pay more for experiences and quality things that matter and the commodity everyday stuff we get online or from a big box. We avoid chain restaurants and the mall like the plague.

This is the big trend that I see. There is high end, unique, local goods and services and then the everyday cheap stuff is being mass produced distributed through very efficienct supply lines and retailers with a great hollowing out of the middle.

Actually we bet the bank on this trend as we opened a unique, local restaurant in the local arts district which while not super expensive, it is definitely not competing with the chains. And it is thriving.

We are empty nesters who work a lot. My wife has her own business and I have a day job and the restaurant so we don’t have a lot of leisure spending. A hour or two of streaming TV at night. When we do go out, we go for something nice and different.

20

There was a major change in my movie watching habits this year. The local discount theater closed in February. I used to go watch a movie for two dollars; for that price, I didn’t care too much if it was a great movie or just a couple of hours of entertainment. But now I have to go to regular theaters and pay regular ticket prices. I’ve become a lot more discerning in what movies I’ll pay to go see.