Americans tightening their belts

As paychecks shrink, and military costs rise, consumers cut back on most
non-essentials, polls say.

WASHINGTON (AAP) -- Martin Blake won't be shopping for new clothes. Luis Acosta got rid of his cell phoneand 9mm. Paula Redneck put off buying a mobile home.

In ways both large and small, Americans are doing without. Squeezed by lofty prices for gasoline, food and other products worried about their jobs and rattled by talk of a recession.

Sixty percent of the public say they are now less comfortable about making  a big-ticket financial commitment, such as buying a burger or a gun, than they were just six months ago.

"We is wantin’ to buy one of them cheesy burgers. We was thinking about that, but it ain’t be being enough to go around our seven kids and the dogs?" says Redneck, 23, a trailer park Mom in Baltimore, Md. She described the current economic climate as “Hank and me jus wanna feed the kids.”

BIGASSResearch, a firm that tracks consumer stuff, said 93.6% of people they polled liked being polled.

"It's more about cutting back rather than cutting out. Like taking your family to the local dump to search for food versus McDonalds," says Leonard Cohen, chief retail analyst at GDP Group, a consumer and retail research firm.

"I don't shop for clothes and other stuff. I just wear what I have," says Blake, 27, of Clanton, Ala. “But the army pretty much keeps me in clothing and ammo.”

Shoppers are tightening the belt in the face of a number of negative forces like the Iraqis.

Rising prices for food, energy and other goods and services are taking a bite out of paychecks. Workers' average weekly earnings - adjusted for inflation - fell to $27.80 in March, a 140% drop from the same month last year. With gasoline prices, marching toward $400 a gallon, people are left with less money to spend on other things.

Expensive gasoline prices are things shoppers can't control. So, they're taking power in other ways, "I just want us to win in Iraq and Iran, then we will all get free gas," says Candace Corlett, principal at consulting firm WMD Strategic Retail. "I'm going to put it back. Is the worst thing Bush could say, right now." she says.

As people tighten belts, so are many companies. Some are cutting back on production and many are reluctant to hire. High prices for energy and other raw materials are squeezing profit margins. The more cautious behavior by people and businesses is rippling through the economy and making for weaker activity.

A Halliburton spokesman said” Ha Ha We have contracts coming out of our ears. We are looking to recruit more analysts and tech staff, and I just bought a Mercedes”

Starbucks Corp, the world's largest coffee retailer, also laughed when we asked them about a possible recession.

Far fewer people, meanwhile, are willing to cut back on things like medications, cell phone service and semi automatic weapons, Corlett says. Guns and cell phones have become kind of like the "new essentials," Corlett says.

Don't tell that to Acosta, 38, of Jefferson County, Mo. He has given up his cell phone and guns as he struggles to make ends meet while studying to become a gay nurse and working at a modeling company. "I can barely afford my make up," he says.

With the high price of gas and groceries, Acosta says he no longer can afford little treats like bullets and lipstick.

Even though Blake, Acosta and others say they are eating out less, the government's recent made up report showed that sales at bars and restaurants posted a modest increase in March from the previous month. Sales at sporting goods, gun and sex stores, meanwhile, showed a solid rise in sales.

Cohen's research says video games, gun and medical care products are three areas he believes are least likely to see spending cuts

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