Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Great spending expectations for essentials
Retail | Economy
January 26, 2024 – As inflation lingers above the Federal Reserve’s target rate, US consumers predict they’ll have to spend more this year on necessities. McKinsey’s latest research indicates that consumers are planning to reduce their overall spend and to be more selective in the products they buy. In particular, senior partner Sajal Kohli and coauthors note, consumers expect to spend more on essentials, such as food and baby supplies. Click through the interactive to see more.
Interactive
To read the article, see “An update on US consumer sentiment: Caution heading into 2024,” December 15, 2023.
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Visual form
Six-panel stacked bar chart.
Layout / body structure
The source breaks spending expectations into six category panels: discretionary fashion, food, semi-discretionary, essentials, discretionary travel and leisure, and discretionary home, personal care, and pet.
What is being compared
It compares expected spending changes over the next three months by category and by specific product or service type inside each category.
Measurement system
Each stacked bar is measured as the percentage of respondents who expect to spend less, the same, or more.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Every panel uses the same bar anatomy with a dark spend-less base, a gray spend-the-same middle, and a light-blue spend-more top, so the reader can compare category patterns across multiple product bars.
Main takeaway from the visual
Essentials show visibly stronger spend-more shares than fashion and other discretionary areas, where spend-less or spend-the-same dominates much more of each bar.
Key standout values or extremes
In essentials, baby supplies shows 30 percent planning to spend more, gasoline 27, fresh produce 22, and meat and dairy 21, while in discretionary fashion accessories shows 47 percent planning to spend less and jewelry 46 percent.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
The reader advances through six category panels, keeping the same spend-less, spend-the-same, and spend-more structure while the product groups change from panel to panel.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.