U.S. Consumer Spending Hasn’t Changed Much In 30 Years, With One Exception

Conventional wisdom holds that American consumers have changed a lot in the past 30 years. Just look at millennials and the many things they’ve killed. But that conventional wisdom is basically wrong, says the large consulting, auditing, and risk-management firm Deloitte. The company spent a year wading through government data, talking to industry leaders and analysts, surveying more than 4,000 U.S. consumers, and using its consumer-insights division to analyze more than 200 billion credit card transactions. Its conclusion, laid out in a new report, is that, while the environment around U.S. consumers has changed significantly, consumers have barely changed at all. How much of their money they’re spending on different categories, such as entertainment, dining out, alcohol, and furniture, has remained relatively stable—with one exception. The share of spending devoted to clothing has dropped by more than half since 1987. Read more at Quartz.