WASHINGTON — The economic downturn is forcing America’s households to learn a tough lesson: how to fend for themselves.
Sales of starter sewing kits have shot up by 30 percent at Wal-Mart as families forgo the tailor. Procter & Gamble said that it has noticed more questions from customers about how to dye their hair at home to match salon coloring.
The recession has had a powerful effect on the American state of mind. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week shows Americans have grown increasingly insecure about their finances since mid-September, as fears about making mortgage payments have spread and more believe the economy is in a long-term, serious decline.
These feelings have helped set off a change in behavior so pronounced that marketers and businesses have coined a name for it. They call it “insourcing”: doing yourself what you once paid others to do for you.
“There are many of us that have been spending money that we can’t afford to spend and have taken on habits that we had no business taking on,” said Paco Underhill, who studies consumer behavior and wrote the book “Why We Buy.”
“Those time-based trade-offs actually are some of the easiest forms of economizing that a person can do.”
A report by SBI, a market research firm, shows revenue for landscaping firms fell 7 percent over the past year, to $25 billion.
And an analysis of a range of services firms compiled by research firm Sageworks showed sales growth slowed to 4 percent last year, the lowest level in at least six years.
Professional Consultants & Resources, a beauty consulting company, estimated the salon industry continued to grow last year, but at 2.8 percent, a historic low. Susan Gustafson, president of Ratner Cos., which owns national chain Hair Cuttery, said more clients are showing up for just a trim, coloring their hair at home.
