February TV-Buying Plans Plunged; Consumers Began Thinking Vacations
Consumer TV-buying intentions plunged sharply in February from January, even as overall consumer confidence increased for the second straight month, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes through Feb. 11, finding 9.2% planning to…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
buy a new TV set in the next six months. We have covered the board’s monthly reports on TV-buying intentions for at least the past three decades. Except for the 9% in August saying a new TV set was in their plans (see 2008250054), we can’t recall a lower score. Consumers’ assessment of economic conditions improved in February, said the board, suggesting a shift in thinking toward long-deferred discretionary purchases may have affected TV-buying plans. “Consumers remain cautiously optimistic, on the whole, about the outlook for the coming months,” it said. “Notably, vacation intentions -- particularly, plans to travel outside the U.S. and via air -- saw an uptick this month, and are poised to improve further as vaccination efforts expand.”