Consumer Confidence

Michael Kinsley gives a very readable description of how a loss in consumer confidence works in real time -- while considering purchasing a coffee machine with a "burr grinder".

My mind followed an unfamiliar path. I thought of all the coffee makers we already have, and how each of them had let us down. I thought about another clock to reset twice a year or face its accusatory blinking in the kitchen dark. I asked myself whether attempting to master another set of instructions written in English as a Second Language was really the best use of a month of my time.

For possibly the first time ever, I considered the question of getting the thing home (the issue: juggle coffee maker and fare card on the Metro, or eat up my bargain with a $20 cab ride) before I owned it rather than after. I even remembered — as I had vowed to do the last time my consumer confidence boiled over like this — the trauma of disposing the corrugated cardboard box and all those infuriating blocks of Styrofoam. I went home empty-handed, and my consumer confidence was shot.

I’m not the only one. “Consumer confidence” is plummeting nationwide. Those famous attitude surveys from the University of Michigan say so and actual consumption statistics confirm it. October retail sales were down double digits from a year ago. Most of this drop represents people who suddenly are poorer, or feel that way. But there also is some concern that the great American shopping spree may be over. We have all the stuff we need.