The line-ups at SARCAN are not getting any shorter but the hair salons and barbers appear to have caught up.
Because we haven’t been through one of these pandemics in recent memory, every day is a learning experience for those who track the economy, our spending habits and consumer behavior in general. That’s what makes even small changes in our routines interesting…..you just never know when a new trend might erupt and we are pouring over the data in hopes of spotting it.
The best information we’re getting on this front these days comes from banks who have tapped into the activity levels on their various credit and debit cards to identify patterns. The information is fairly detailed and it’s current.
RBC Royal Bank, for example, just put out their August figures showing our spending on personal care, like haircuts, has now returned to levels we saw a year ago. Back-to-school expenditures were slightly lower this year bringing down overall retail spending.
But we are now spending as much as we did last year on gasoline as we fit in those last few staycation days.
