Hot Trends Newsletter and Information

Labels: impact, recession, trends newsletter

This may come as little surprise to most people: In times of crisis, women are more likely to take a shopping spree than in normal times.

A new survey finds almost half of UK women are frightened or scared by the recession, and 45 percent felt their financial situation had taken a hit. A full 75 percent said they would be making cutbacks.

Yet 79 percent of them said they would splurge to cheer themselves up.

Of the 700 women surveyed, 40 percent said depression was an excuse to overspend; 60 percent said "feeling a bit low" was a good enough reason.

"This type of spending, or compensatory consumption, serves as a way of regulating intense emotions," said Karen Pine, a University of Hertfordshire professor and author of "Sheconomics" (Headline Publishing Group, 2009).

The itch to shop has long been known to overwhelm some people, either because of simple materialism or to compensate for emotional problems. Many researchers liken it to addiction, and some think it has been a growing problem in the modern consumerism society.

The problem is likely not confined to women. A 2006 study in the United States found 6 percent of women have it so bad they are labeled compulsive buyers, but so are 5.5 percent of men.

Pine says this compensatory behavior could become more pronounced in a recession. People use drugs and alcohol similarly to regulate emotions, Pine explains, but she thinks shopping is increasingly employed by women for this purpose. And, paradoxically, worrying about money could lead women to spend more, she said.

"If shopping is an emotional habit for women they may feel the need to keep spending despite the economic downturn," said Professor Pine. "Or, perhaps worse still, if they can't spend we might see an increase in mental health problems such as anxiety and depression."

Problem is, the splurges don't always have the intended effect.

About 25 percent of the women surveyed said shopping sprees in the week prior to being surveyed left them with feelings of regret, guilt or shame.

Sounds a lot like other addictions, Pine said.

LiveScience.com

Labels: compulsive buyers, hot trends 2009, recession, shopping spree, splurges, trends newsletter

As this year's wedding season approaches, you may be finding fewer invitations filling up your mailbox. But don't worry; it's probably not because you've been a bad friend.

The $60 billion a year wedding industry is hurting as much as the rest of the economy, according to a recent Bloomberg article. And with couples spending an average of 24% less on tying the knot than in '07, they are scaling back on everything from the number of guests to meal selections to flowers.

A recent survey done by David's Bridal entitled "What’s on Brides' Minds" reports that 75% of weddings are being downsized in order to save money.

Sandra Chavez, who is getting married in September in Pleasanton, Calif. told Fox News:
"I would be embarrassed to spend thousands and thousands of dollars when people are losing their jobs, homes, cars etc. We understand that this is just one night."

But what happens after that night? The recession is making its mark on marriages, too ... but in somewhat surprising ways.

It's not surprising that a slumping economy puts a strain on most marriages; it's common knowledge that financial stress is one of the top causes of divorce.

But according to a recent article in Yahoo! Finance, 37% of matrimonial lawyers report seeing a decrease in divorcing couples during economic downturns. The reason, the article posits, is because getting a divorce is the "worst thing you can do financially."

"Attorney fees and court costs compete with setting up a second household as the largest expense in a divorce. A simple divorce can cost $5,000 to $25,000 in attorney fees and court costs while the average complex divorce runs $20,000 to $100,000, says Bruce Hughes, an attorney and certified public accountant in Tustin, Calif."

So maybe the frugal thing to do these days is just stay single? Not so fast.

The Economist and CNN are both reporting that matchmakers and online dating websites like eHarmony.com and OKCupid.com are prospering during the recession.

Patti Novak, owner of Buffalo Niagara Introductions, a matchmaking company in Buffalo, New York, and star of A&E's former reality series "Confessions of a Matchmaker" said her business has seen a 30% increase in clients in the last eight months.

Novak tells CNN: "I think that as people go through more difficult times, being alone becomes more difficult…[Even] if they can only afford popcorn and a six-pack on a Saturday night, they'd rather do it with somebody than alone."

Similarly, Greg Waldorf, CEO of eHarmony, reports a 20% increase in monthly registrations from September 2008 to January 2009, compared with the same time period the prior year. He also points out that the number of visits to its site was higher than average on days when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 100 points.

Waldorf told The Economist, simply: "Going through difficult times with someone special is better than doing it alone."

But searching for love during a recession isn't just limited to finding that perfect soul mate. A recent New York Times article reports that sales of romance novels are up as well.

Harlequin Enterprises, the world's leading publisher of romance fiction, reported that fourth-quarter earnings were up 32% over the same period the year before. And while sales of adult fiction were basically flat last year, according to Nielsen Bookscan, the romance category was up 7% after holding fairly steady for the previous four years.

The New York Times reports: "Like the Depression-era readers who fueled blockbuster sales of Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind,” today’s readers are looking for an escape from the grim realities of layoffs, foreclosures and shrinking 401(k) balances."

So whether you're slashing your wedding budget, struggling through a financial crisis with your spouse, or searching for someone or something to help you through these dark times, it's clear the recession is affecting love all around.

Isn't it romantic?

- Allison Louie-Garcia http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_bs304

Labels: hot trends 2009, recession, romance, wedding, weddings

WASHINGTON - The net worth of American households fell by the largest amount in more than a half-century of record keeping during the fourth quarter of last year.

The Federal Reserve said Thursday that household net worth dropped by a record 9 percent from the level in the third quarter.

The decline was the sixth straight quarterly drop in net worth and underscored the battering that U.S. families are undergoing in the midst of a steep recession with unemployment surging and the value of their homes and investments plunging.

Net worth represents total assets such as homes and checking accounts minus liabilities like mortgages and credit card debt.

Family net worth had hit an all-time high of $64.36 trillion in the April-June quarter of 2007 but has fallen in every quarter since that time.

The record 9 percent drop in the fourth quarter pushed total net worth down to $51.48 trillion, a level that is 20 percent below the third quarter 2007 peak.

After five straight years of sharp increases in home prices, the housing bubble burst in 2007, sending shockwaves through the financial system as banks were hit with billions of dollars of losses on mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.

The federal government created a $700 billion rescue fund for the financial system last October but so far that effort has shown only modest results in terms of getting banks to resume more normal lending patterns.

Households have also been battered by the recession that began in December 2007 and is already the longest in a quarter-century. That dowturn has sent unemployment soaring to a 25-year high of 8.1 percent in February with 4.4 million jobs lost since the downturn began.

The Federal Reserve began keeping quarterly records on net worth in 1951.

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

Labels: hot trends 2009, household net worth, recession

It's been a tough season for spring break destinations. With students and parents tightening their belts in the face of a major recession, the annual tradition of letting off steam - ideally on an exotic beach, with access to plenty of cheap beer - is suffering.

This spring break season - typically, March 16 to April 5 - flights from the U.S. to the Caribbean have dropped as much as 20%, according to data compiled for TIME by the online travel agency Expedia. Meanwhile, safety concerns over Mexico's increasingly violent drug cartels may be helping keep students away from its beaches in droves; travel to the spring-break Mecca of Cancun is down 22% over last year.

But that doesn't mean spring break is canceled. When it comes to scaling back expenses, that's where many college students are drawing a line in the sand. Sun-drenched revelers are spending less, and service-oriented spring breakers are reaching out to communities closer to home.

"For college students, spring break is really a once in a lifetime experience," says Matt Scriven, founder of spring break tour operator ParadiseParties.com. "So they're finding a way to do it."

For many, that means forgoing a far-flung trip - which can cost upwards of $1,000 - and soaking up some less exotic rays. According to Expedia, spring break flights to Orlando, Los Angeles and New York all jumped more than 25% this year.

At ParadiseParties.com, the uptick in sales of cheaper, domestic options - including a $400 party cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and a $300 trip to Panama City, Fla., where MTV films one of its spring break specials - kept the overall number of bookings from dipping substantially, despite a drop in international sales. "We definitely sold a whole lot more of the affordable stuff," says Scriven.

Affordability may also help explain why service-oriented spring break trips, which can cost as little as $300, are more popular than ever this year. At St. Michael's College in Burlington, Vermont, applications doubled for trips to serve in soup kitchens or build homes around the country and abroad. Harvard's alternative spring break program recorded a 90% increase in applications.

And Break Away, an organization that helps coordinate service-oriented break trips for over 150 college campuses nationwide, has tracked a 10-15% increase in participation for the sixth year in a row. "Most alternative break programs are very student-led and small-donor based, very grassroots," says Jill Piacitelli, executive director of Break Away. "Students are still willing and able to raise the $300 to go on the trip."

Some students, however, are less able than they used to be. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, for example, sent some spring-break volunteers to Kentucky last year to help rebuild an elderly woman's home after it burned down. This year, they're offering a staycation instead: 30 students are living on campus and working at local nonprofits.

The per-student tab for the week comes to $75, compared to $350 a pop for one of last year's trips. "Students were not as interested in paying that much," says Jordanna Spencer, graduate coordinator for service and volunteerism. (Read more about volunteer vacations.)

Other alternative break trips are being refocused to help people especially affected by the recession. About two dozen schools, for instance, have retooled their Habitat for Humanity-style affordable housing trips to focus on rehabilitating foreclosured homes instead, says Piacitelli.

"The idea with alternative breaks is to address pressing social needs," she says. "When there's a demonstrated, clear one, the students are on to that, and plan trips around it."

There are other students, of course, who are simply staying home. Melissa Bubb, 20, a junior marketing major at Temple University, took a bus home to Brooklyn, New York, where she spent spring break visiting her grandmother and catching up with high school friends.

"Honestly, I couldn't afford to go on vacation," she says. "The way the circumstances are now with the economy, you have to pick and choose."

For her senior year, though, Bubb has already made her decision. "It will be my last year and my last semester," she says. "I'll probably just treat myself to a trip."

By LAURA FITZPATRICK

Labels: hot trends 2009, recession, spring break 2009