Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

NEW YORK — Rising food prices and shrinking package sizes is a top concern for consumers, according to Deloitte's "2011 Consumer Food and Product Insight Survey."

New York City -- A survey released Tuesday by Deloitte found that 87.7% of shoppers believe prices in food stores are escalating and 74% say the size of some packaged goods is smaller.

According to Deloitte’s new “2011 Consumer Food and Product Insight Survey,” thanks to higher food prices and rising gas prices, 72.7% of consumers are making fewer trips to the grocery store to save money and 40.8% are purchasing fewer items overall.

North Plainfield, N.J. -- Results of a survey released Tuesday by shopping center owner Levin Management Corp. showed that, while store sales remain relatively flat, the majority of its retail tenants are optimistic about the balance of 2011.

Baltimore -- A white paper released Tuesday by marketing communications firm Vertis Communications, entitled “power2thewomen2.0: the Shopping Trend Revolution Continues,” revealed that women wield formidable purchasing power, controlling approximately $5 trillion in spending annually, but that how they interact with retailers and marketers differs greatly.

NEW YORK — Global consumer confidence cautiously edged up one index point to 93 in the second quarter as confidence increases in booming Asian markets were offset by European consumers’ growing concerns of an escalating debt crisis, which battered confidence levels in Spain, Italy and France, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index. Consumer confidence rose two points in the U.S. in Q2 to 87.

LOS ANGELES — Back-to-school budgets will moderately decrease this year, but more consumers will turn to the Internet to score the best deals.

According to a survey conducted by PriceGrabber, 48% of shoppers said they plan to spend $250 or more on back-to-school purchases, while 25% will spend $500 or more. This compared with 2010, when 56% of consumers indicated that they would spend $250 or more, while 31% planned to spend $500 or more.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway on Monday announced that its monthlong prostate cancer campaign raised nearly $10.1 million as part of the company’s ongoing effort to fund research geared toward finding a cure for the leading cancer affecting men.

Shares of Target may hit $100 six or seven years from now, but looking ahead to next year Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Wiltamuth believes the stock should be trading at $64. He recently initiated coverage of the company with a “buy” rating and, like some other analysts, believes investors may be seeing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to purchase shares at valuation levels depressed by uncertainty around the company’s entry into Canada.

Chemsford, Mass. -- Fewer people applied for jobs in the retail sector in June, according to the July Kronos Retail Labor Index.  The July report includes data for June 2011.

The number of applications received by retailers in the Kronos sample fell sharply in June 2011, to just 900,164 from a revised 1,149,879 in May, all on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was the lowest number of applications received since November 2007 and nearly 17%  below its level one year ago. 

Washington, D.C. — A report released Thursday by the National Retail Federation, which expanded on earlier news by the U.S. Commerce Department, showed that warm weather, reduced gas prices and strong Father’s Day promotions helped power retail sales for the 12th consecutive month and past Wall Street expectations.

According to the NRF, retail industry sales (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) in June increased 0.3% seasonally adjusted from May and 5.5% unadjusted year-over-year.