Chris Wilkinson: First Retail Group Managing Director on the ANZ card data showing how Kiwis are spending
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What recent trends are impacting Kiwis' spending habits?
the economy what did we get up to spending wise last month well we spent more on petrol obviously which means we spent less on other stuff priorities realigned apparel down second-hand goods down air travel down uh chris wilkinson first retail group managing director is with us chris morning good morning mike you worried no look this is what were we expecting we've seen huge increases in petrol we've all the living costs have gone up you know what are people to do You got $100, you got $100. Simple as that. That's how it boils down. Having said that, petrol has come down significantly of late. Would you in future months expect that to get redistributed back out to the other areas of the economy?
Without a doubt, yeah, absolutely. HOSPO down just. Do we see what's resilient? What's holding in there?
How has fuel price fluctuation affected consumer spending?
Yeah, look, interesting, Mike. Hospo was down just, but before that it was down 2%. You know, we're seeing some really interesting trends going on. People are spending less on hairdressing, less on beauty products.
See, they say that's resilient. I wouldn't have thought it was. I would have thought that's the first thing to go, wouldn't you? Or do you like a hairdo?
Well, if everyone likes a hairdo, you don't know. You've got to feel good.
What sectors are experiencing a drop in spending?
And that's one of the things that does drive the economy. People want to look after themselves. They want to treat themselves well. But one thing that has gone up, I notice, is appliances and electrical equipment. So, you know, people, obviously there's a need there, but people are obviously looking for more efficient solutions as well.
Yeah. What about the drop in groceries? Is that, I mean, do you worry about that or can people shop around groceries? In other words, you're buying the same sort of thing, just different brands, different prices, specials, all that stuff.
Yeah, well, that's been a decisive shift that we've been seeing over a period of time.
How are Kiwis adapting their grocery shopping strategies?
People moving to own brand products, people being very smart with their purchasing, shopping around at different brands and just broadening their spectrum and where they're shopping.
And do you believe in these numbers? A lot of numbers month by month can be a bit noisy. Is this a real indication of what's actually going on? Yeah, this is very much the good oil, Mike.
It really plays out. It's the stuff that we're seeing right across the country in other figures as well.
And if the war ends and the strait opens and the world returns to some form of normality, will it bounce back instantly or not?
Yeah, it will do. And I think that, you know, Rod Duke's comments the other day talking about, you know, he's expecting a return.
What does the ANZ card data reveal about consumer behavior?
That's a really good bellwether for the economy.
Good stuff, Chris. Appreciate it. Chris Wilkinson, who's first retail group managing director. We got a dryer yesterday and we got a dryer because the other one didn't work. So we had to buy, you know, so there's still that sort of spending going on. And we bought, funnily enough, we bought a cheaper dryer. And we didn't do a cheaper dryer deliberately. We did a cheaper dryer because the person said, oh, you want to go with this? These are good people.
Will consumer spending bounce back after the current economic challenges?
And not only that, right now we've got them on special. So we did that. So we saved some money. Well, we spent some money and then we saved some money, but we didn't really save some money. We spent some more money.
Did they give you a circuit board guarantee on that one? They didn't give me any sort of guarantee as far as I know, and it weighed a ton, but that's a story for another day.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What recent trends are impacting Kiwis' spending habits?
0:00–0:50
2
How has fuel price fluctuation affected consumer spending?
0:50–1:12
3
What sectors are experiencing a drop in spending?
1:12–1:42
4
How are Kiwis adapting their grocery shopping strategies?
1:42–2:26
5
What does the ANZ card data reveal about consumer behavior?
2:26–2:47
6
Will consumer spending bounce back after the current economic challenges?
2:47–3:12
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Mike Hosking Breakfast
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