Overall in the poll, 71% said rising prices will cause some hardship for them and their family, [image-nocss] including 41% who called it a "serious" hardship. Just 29% said rising prices are not causing a negative impact on their finances.
By income, 63% of those with annual household incomes over $50,000 now say rising prices are causing financial hardship, up from 55% in March.
For older Americans, it's worse. The share of seniors expressing financial hardship over gasoline prices hit 76%; it was 68% in March.
The public's coping strategies are largely unchanged from March, with 72% having cut back on other expenses, 66% saying they have reduced the amount of driving they do and 48% changing vacation plans.
But analysts say relief is coming. Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service, said that he expects the price at the pump to drop as much as 40 cents in the next four weeks.
The AP-GfK Poll was conducted May 5-9 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,001 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
While U.S. consumers continue to take measures to adjust to rising gasoline prices, however, these actions are not as drastic as those taken in previous years, according to a report by The Nielsen Co. Unlike 2008, when the average price for regular gasoline jumped above $4 a gallon, what Nielsen described as today's improving job market and strengthening economy are helping consumers cope better than during this recent economic downturn.
In the spring of 2011, consumers have adjusted to a new spending reality, but actions taken to cut down on spending habits, such as eating out less, buying less-expensive grocery brands and doing more things at home are less prevalent compared to the summer of 2008 and are similar to the actions taken in the summer of 2010 when prices were well below $3 a gallon.
Trip compression, however, continues to dominate as a key strategy for 67% of households looking to save on high gasoline prices. And while this level is down from 2008 levels (78%), it is up four percentage points from last year. Additionally, nearly half of consumers (46%) will continue to seek lower-priced gas stations and eat out less (45%) and over one-third (36%) will shop closer to home to offset high prices at the pump. Coupon clipping is also part of the gasoline-price offset strategy for 36% of households in 2011--up four percentage points from 2008.
One in five households (21%) say they are reducing spending to a great degree, which is down from one in four (26%) in 2008; however, with gasoline prices about 90 cents higher per gallon than year a ago, this is an increase from 18% of households reducing spending to a great degree in 2010--indicative of how some households are still feeling considerable pain at the pump.
Also in decline are saving strategies consumers deploy to lower costs: 21% say they are shopping more at supercenters, which is down eight and five percentage points from 2008 and 2010, respectively. Currently, 12% say they are buying larger economy sizes--down four percentage points compared to 2008/2010 and 10% say they are shopping at warehouse clubs--down three percentage points from 2008/2010.
More and more savvy shoppers are taking advantage of incentive programs linked to grocery spending to buy gasoline; 28% of consumers say they are using their grocery shopper loyalty cards to save up to 10, 20 and 30 cents on a gallon of fuel by redeeming points at participating gas stations. This savings is not only helping to take the pain out of the pump for consumers, but it is also helping to drive traffic for retailers.
With four out of six households saying they are combining errands to reduce their driving and control their gasoline spending, some retailers and manufacturers will feel more pain than others. Eating out less and continued interest in at-home and value-oriented activities is a sure sign that it is time to turn the volume up on product solutions and merchandising activities to capture sales from at-home consumption.
Manufacturers and retailers should offer consumers meal deals, recipe ideas, at-home entertainment options and tips and tricks for at-home personal care and in-home cleaning products. Retailers with fuel saving promotions are in the driver's seat; those without programs need to pull other levers to offer value--be it convenient location, value proposition or unique offerings, now is the time to tout those benefits.
With recent declining global oil prices and falling demand as U.S. consumers are driving less to cope, gasoline prices may fall about 50 cents by Memorial Day, which would be a welcomed change; however, if fuel prices remain elevated throughout the summer, chances are that consumers will react with greater severity--just like they did in 2008.
Click hereto view charts on the Nielsen data.
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