Spending to beat the gloom

Britons refuse to give up on chocolate: quite the opposite. Chocolate retailer Thorntons has revealed annual profits have risen nearly 20% to £8.5m.

Despite a consumer downturn, the chocolatier said sales increased by nearly 12%, showing that shoppers are still spending money on confectionery. The company has recently revamped its stores, increased the choice of chocolates with new recipes, relaunched its Continental range and introduced chocolates from around the world. “There’s room for pleasure and a little bit of indulgence in everyone’s life,” said their boss.

However, it is depressing for shoppers almost everywhere. People are feeling the pinch because of higher food and fuel prices. But levels of optimism and pessimism, and the ways in which people act on their mood, seem to vary in a peculiar way, according to Nielsen, a marketing-information firm (and as reported in The Economist).

If they have any spare money, consumers in the Asia-Pacific region are more inclined to save it than to splurge. Some 57% of them say they put any disposable cash straight in the bank. For Russian consumers, who only 15 years ago had little to consume at all, clothing is a priority: over two-thirds say any spare funds they have goes to the wardrobe. People in Nordic countries view a holiday as a necessity, whereas Brazilians seem happier to stay at home.

At least in rich countries, the rise in the price of food (and the share of the family budget it absorbs) is not so crippling. 50 years ago, about 30% of household income in Britain went on food; now it is half that. Britons bin a third of the food they buy, and Americans not much less. In rich countries, there has been a spurt of interest in using leftovers, but so far this is a middle-class fad; whether ordinary people will follow is still in doubt.

In Europe, consumers now seem to buy food in the way they buy clothes: going downmarket for basics and splurging on the odd treat. Gourmet chocolate bars are the equivalent of a designer handbag. In fact, cost-conscious consumers may start buying more fancy food than before, to make up for going out to restaurants less.