Americans prefer shopping to TV news, workouts, group activities: Report

American consumers now prefer shopping on a daily or weekly basis to watching TV news, participating in sports activities and attending group social settings with the same frequency, according to a new report on consumer trends.

Jeremy King, CEO and founder of the industry research platform Attest, said the results from the firm’s 2022 Consumer Trends Report reflect pent-up demand for online and offline retail goods as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have left people with unspent money to use.

“The Attest research finds that the public is spending more time than ever shopping, turning the activity into the nation’s favorite pastime,” Mr. King said in a statement.

“This presents a great opportunity for online and offline retailers as we enter the new year,” he added.

The Nov. 10-13 digital survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers, released Tuesday, found 60% say they shop daily or weekly. By comparison, 29% say they do a sporting activity with similar frequency and 22% go to a group, club or class.

Additionally, only 32% of Americans are regularly tuning into TV news in 2021, compared to 46% in 2020.

Mr. King also said the survey is “bad news for Main Street” in terms of how and where Americans increasingly are shopping.

Even with physical stores reopening, 37% of respondents said they “mostly” or “always” shop online for products excluding food versus 32% who primarily shop in-store. The remaining 30% split their shopping between online and offline.

Generationally, 45% of millennials (25- to 40-year-olds) now “mostly” or “always” shop online, compared to 40% of Gen Z (13- to 24-year-olds), 36% of Gen X (41- to 56-year-olds) and 24.5% of baby boomers (57- to 75-year-olds).

Baby boomers are the only demographic to still favor shopping in-store, with 49% saying they shop primarily in-store for non-food products.

Attest reported that 6 in 10 Americans prefer to shop for groceries in-store, while 21% primarily purchase groceries online even though there are increasing online options for food purchases. The other 19% of respondents buy groceries online and offline.

Boomers are also the most wedded to the supermarket, with 81% always or mostly shopping there, compared to 29% of millennials, who favor shopping for groceries online.