Reports highlight that U.S. consumer sentiment dropped to its second-lowest level on record, dating back more than half a century — dropping to 11% this month.
The University of Michigan polled people between March 25 and April 8, with many saying the trade war threatening higher costs was weighing on them. However, that downfall in consumer confidence is not being felt here by some Central Texans.
Gina Mitchell is the owner of Mainstream Boutique Waco and shares what she’s seeing when it comes to customers shopping at her downtown clothing and accessories boutique.
“It’s about the same (compared to about six months ago). I would say our tourists have kinda slowed down a little bit," she said and added, “Our good local customers, our loyal local customers are still just going strong.”
Mike Glockzin is the Vice President of Lending with Members Choice Credit Union. He said, “People that are gonna do any kind of borrowing, they’re gonna do it I think regardless of what the overall big picture of the economy is doing because they’re living day to day" he said and added, “Main thing, concern all of the time is don’t over-extend.”
Dr. Steve Green is a professor of economics at Baylor University.
He said we’re in a waiting game right now to see what kind of impacts the tariffs could have.
“Maybe rather than waiting til July or August to do the back-to-school clothing (shopping) just do it now,” Dr. Green said. He added, "A couple of months from now the future will be a little more clear but until then it might make sense to keep your toe out of the water for the really big purchases."
Green went on to say. "But if you’re already locked in the contract on your new house — I don’t think there’s enough to worry about — to take a big financial hit to undo that but if you’re just now kinda thinking about it, it might make sense to wait a little bit.”
We will continue to monitor consumer indexes and market adjustments in the weeks and months to come.
