BIGresearch: 7 in 10 Consumers Remain Down About Financial Situation, Majority Aren't Spending on Discretionary Purchases

COLUMBUS, OH--(Marketwire - May 19, 2009) - 71.6% of consumers say they aren't feeling better about their personal financial situation, according to BIGresearch's May 2009 Consumer Intentions & Actions (CIA) Survey of 8,447 consumers (http://www.bigresearch.com). Women (74.6%) and those who live in the Northeast (74.4%) are even more "under the weather."

Are you feeling better about your economic situation?

        Adults 18+  Men    Women   Northeast   Midwest   South   West
Yes     28.4%       31.7%  25.4%   25.6%       27.8%     29.7%   29.2%
No      71.6%       68.3%  74.6%   74.4%       72.2%     70.3%   70.8%

Source: BIGresearch, CIA-May 09

82.2% of consumers are refraining from discretionary purchases. And with a more negative financial outlook comes an even lower propensity to spend. 83.3% of Women say they have not started to spend more on discretionary items and neither have 82.6% of Northeasterners.

Are you starting to spend more on discretionary items?

        Adults 18+  Men    Women   Northeast  Midwest  South   West
Yes     17.8%       19.0%  16.7%   17.4%      17.0%    18.8%   17.2%
No      82.2%       81.0%  83.3%   82.6%      83.0%    81.2%   82.8%

Source: BIGresearch, CIA-May 09

Consumers also weighed in on their confidence in the various automaker nameplates to be in business in five years. Here's a list of the top ten based upon percent that were confident or very confident.

How confident are you that the following automakers will be in business in five years?

            Confident/Very Confident (Top 10)
Toyota             85.3%
Honda              83.6%
Nissan             77.5%
Ford               72.3%
Hyundai            69.8%
Chevrolet          61.1%
Cadillac           54.1%
Lincoln/Mercury    48.8%
Jeep               46.7%
Saturn             41.2%
-----------------------
Chrysler           29.0%

Source: BIGresearch, CIA-May 09

For additional complimentary data (including gender, income, ages and census region): http://info.bigresearch.com/.

About BIGresearch

BIGresearch is a consumer intelligence firm providing analysis of behavior in areas of products and services, retail, financial services, automotive and media. BIGresearch conducts the monthly Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey (CIA) of 8,000+ respondents and the semi-annual Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM) of 15,000+ respondents. More information is available at http://www.bigresearch.com

Contact Information: Contact: Chrissy Wissinger BIGresearch (614) 846-0146