Americans are warming up on summer plans, despite high gas prices
The Ipsos Consumer Tracker, fielded on Ipsos' Omnibus platform, asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.
Why we asked about summer plans: We’re always keeping an eye on the human economy, but especially in turbulent times.
What we found: In the empirical economy with all its “data,” gas prices surge, mortgage rates rise, markets stay lofty. Just another week in the U.S.
But a funny thing keeps showing up in our data. On one hand, consumer confidence has cratered. On the other, it’s leveling out. Last wave, we saw that more say they have some cash left over after paying their bills.
This wave we re-ran our battery of questions asking Americans about their summer plans, last run in March. In March, gas prices were just starting to climb. Our plans were pretty consistent with 2025 at that time. Now we see an actual increase across the board in our plans.
Granted, there’s record credit card debit financing much spending. But my hunch is there’s some nihilism going on here, too. Gas prices are just settling in around $5/gallon in many places and show no sign of going back down. It kind of feels like how the stock market “prices in” disruption it knows is coming. Perhaps folks just assume this is how the economy is going to look and are carrying on, despite their negative overall sentiment. Presidential approval ratings are suffering, but some Republican consumers feel the high prices are worth it for the political gains. Others are putting a positive spin on their economic pain, claiming that cutting back on food is like “fasting” for health reasons.
Regardless, there are some signals that people are just accepting this new normal, figuring out where to make cuts, putting off some purchases and trying to live their lives as much as possible.
More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:
More Americans say AI tools are being used at work
More people feel threatened by hantavirus than COVID
Americans’ appetite for functional foods varies widely
The Ipsos Care-o-Meter: What does America know about vs. what does America care about?
