31% of consumers buy cheaper alcohol

56% of Irish respondents to a Nielsen Global online survey have stated that they’ve cut down on out-of-home entertainment to save on household expenses versus the same time last year according to Nielsen’s latest Consumer Confidence survey.

The Q2 survey also found that 20% of people expect that they’ll continue to cut down on out-of-home expenses once economic conditions improve.

31% of respondents stated that they have cut down on alcohol or buy cheaper brands of alcohol but this three-month period figure is actually down five percentage points on the numbers who did so in the first three months of this year. Some 17% claim that they’ll continue cutting down or buing cheaper brands of alcohol once conditions improve.

This compares to 71% of respondents having switched to cheaper grocery brands and the 43% who intend to continue doing so should economic conditions improve.

The 71% figure is up three percentage points on the previous Jan-Mar quarter this year.

The biggest consumer concerns remain Job Security (down one percentage point on Q1) and Debt (up two percentage points on Q1 to 15%).

Interestingly enough, Increasing Utility Bills is down one percentage point to just 13% as a concern among consumers this quarter compared to last.

But those claiming ‘no spare cash’ increased to 28% (up two percentage points on the first quarter of the year) while those ‘putting it into savings’ fell three percentage points to 31%.