How Retail Discounts Affect Shopping Habits Across Generations

Rampant discounting in department stores has conditioned a great majority of consumers to wait for the SALE sign before even entering. And this is impacting how they make purchase decisions in other aspects of their lives. In fact, roughly 90 percent of the 750 consumers we surveyed last month acknowledged that these discounts are influencing their expectations for markdowns on home electronics, home appliances, furniture and even smartphones and vehicles.

What proved to be even more surprising is the emergence of a wide generational gap which points to a very different view on discounts when comparing the Baby Boomer and the Millennial generations — the two largest generations with the greatest spending power.