Have the high prices at the gas pumps changed what we eat yet?
I found myself wondering about this as I watched the gas-pump numbers spin into outer space at my last fill-up.
I wouldn’t normally think of the Journal of Marketing as a source, exactly, but in March it published “An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Gasoline on Grocery Shopping Behavior.” I seized on it, thinking that it had a boring enough title that it had to carry some academic authority. As it turns out, the authors are academics and the piece is useful. Unfair profiling has its uses.
From Zazzle.com
Gas prices affect our food buying in two ways—when the pump sucks more out of our wallet, we make fewer trips to the store, and we spend less when we get there.
The American Research Group has been looking into this too. They found that a third of us are shopping less often and more than 42 percent of those surveyed were spending less on food in stores. More than half are cutting their visits to sit-down restaurants.
Usually when money is tight the superstores with lower prices get more business. The already downtrodden Mom and Pop outfits (all three of them) and the smaller chains feel the pain most acutely.
These days, even Wal-Mart is feeling the pinch. Probably because of the fewer-trips behavior. If ever there was a store designed to prompt impulse buys, it’s Wal-Mart. If they ain’t showing up, they ain’t being impulsive.
Oddly, some luxury and Whole-Foods-like places are doing well, which I attribute to three things. First, the seriously wealthy are not feeling the pantry pinch. Second, pricier organics are seen as investments in one’s health by a growing number of folks. And finally, there’s a certain comfort in having some really good wine and cheese and chocolate in the dark after the electric company shuts off the power.
Groups from the online Mother Nature Network to The Wall Street Journal have looked into how people are coping and nearly everyone says their grocery bill has to be cut. We’re buying less food and cheaper stuff.
(By the way, the Mother Nature Network, or MNN, also has a link to recipes for homemade Girl Scout cookies. If you want your kid to be in therapy until he’s 50, trying to sort out why he feels unloved, then go right ahead and bake some.)
The WSJ reports that online sales have jumped, and that includes foodstuffs. As someone who buys cases of sardines and hoison sauce (used separately) online, I have some responsibility for the trend. What’s clear is that people who never imagined they’d buy pantry staples from a website are doing just that.
If you, like me, feel miffed that your car’s needs are interfering with your noshing, then buck up. Get a reality check by looking at this Civil Eats map of food spending around the world. Americans spend about 7 percent of their money on food, less than any other countries who track these stats.
If you’re old, you remember when gas stations gave away dishes. Soon they’ll be handing us a piece of toast with each fill-up.
We’re in for a long ride here.
