Amid heightened political stress and persistent economic pressures, U.S. consumers have been feeling as though they’ve lost control their futures and their finances.
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That’s according to the Kearney Consumer Institute ’s Q2 Consumer Stress Index, which pulled together polling from 18,000 consumers across the globe.
Seven out of 12 countries surveyed in June showed increased stress levels from the previous quarter, but American shoppers have been evincing a particularly potent sense of ennui, according to Kearney lead Katie Thomas, who manages the ongoing series of research.
“Consumers around the world can only be described as ‘resigned,’ with political and economic insecurity manifesting stress differently from country to country,” she said. “In the U.S. and some other Western countries, this has led to a perceived loss of agency, with consumers feeling powerless in the face of continued uncertainty.”
Kearney characterizes resignation as a loss of power or motivation—“the consumer stress equivalent of personal depression.” Consumers feel as though they’re treading water, and it’s leading to exhaustion, making choices painful and contributing to a growing sense of despair.
Kearney calculates consumer sentiment by analyzing consumer flexibility, consumer agency (the perception of having options or the ability to impact conditions), and consumer sensitivity or awareness (the issues on their minds and how they’re feeling about them).
“In looking at consumer behavior, it is critically important to get as complete a picture as possible, as there can be lots of anomalies at play,” Thomas said. “For example, political stress feeds into financial stress—the generalized stress of politics may lead to personalized stress pegged to the economy , as can be seen with popular sentiment that jobs and personal finance are at risk even as data on job growth, inflation , and gross national product point to a robust economic picture.”
In keeping with the previous quarter’s data, the Q2 report showed that geopolitics and government are again the top stressors for shoppers.
More than 50 percent of the countries surveyed showed that consumers are pessimistic about their country’s political future, leading to a stress index more than seven points higher than those who felt optimism. According to Thomas, the phenomenon is evidence that stress stemming from politics begets stress at home.
“When consumers are stressed about their country, this often translates into stress about their finances,” she said. “Our research found that two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck—amid this, they need a source of reliability and consistency.”
The U.S. saw the largest increase in stress quarter over quarter, second only to France. Both countries have elections coming up, and the heightened sense of unknowability about the future has shoppers feeling untethered. That could change, though, once the elections are over; Thomas pointed to the fact that geopolitical stress fell in Mexico following its recent election “as the anticipatory stress of the unknown stabilized once the election was complete.”
The rejiggering of the Democratic presidential ticket—with Vice President Kamala Harris likely at the top and a yet-unknown running mate riding shotgun—could already be swaying shopper stress levels.
Kearney’s reporting, released this week based on insights collected last month, failed to capture the events of recent days, which saw President Joe Biden renounce his role as the party’s nominee and hand the baton to his No. 2.
For Americans, and especially Democrats, the move represents a new direction. An NPR-Marist poll released Tuesday showed that 87 percent of all voters believe the commander in chief’s decision to step aside was the right thing to do. Forty-one percent of Americans and 65 percent of Democrats believe it increases the party’s chance of winning in November.
There are also signs that President Biden’s retreat from the spotlight—leaving Harris to establish her own brand and campaign platform in the short weeks leading up to the election—is invigorating those recently “resigned” voters. Days after the president voiced his intention to leave the race, 35 percent of Americans reported they’re more likely to turn up at the polls than before the announcement.
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The Democratic party, perhaps catching a vibe from voters, is also seeking to alleviate uncertainty. Party leaders, including all of the veep’s presumptive challengers for the nomination, have rallied around Harris instead of gunning for a place on the ticket. Contributing to chaos in the midst of political upheaval isn’t the move, their actions signal.
They’re also likely reflecting the views of their constituents. Mere hours after President Biden made his announcement on X and Instagram, a YouGov poll of more than 2,000 Americans showed 37 percent of all voters want Harris as the Democratic nominee. And within less than one day, Harris solidified the support of 3,180 delegates, far outpacing the 1,976 needed to claim the nomination, an Associated Press poll revealed.
Perhaps the biggest tell that the scales are tipping away from apathy in favor of enthusiasm comes with the rate at which inflation-weary Americans are opening their pocketbooks to support Harris’ run for office.
In the first 24 hours after receiving President Biden’s endorsement, the Harris campaign raised over $81 million—”the most in a 24 hour period in the history of presidential politics,” Harris for President Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a memo on Wednesday. As of Tuesday evening, Harris had raised $126 million.
More than 1.4 million grassroots donors contributed to that striking figure, 64 percent of whom said it was their first donation this election cycle. What’s more, the campaign drummed up 74,000 new recurring donors since Sunday afternoon, with two-thirds signing up for weekly campaign donations.
President Biden, too, has thrown the full weight of his support behind the new presumptive nominee, branding Harris “experienced,” “tough,” and “capable.”
“I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” he said in an address from the Oval Office on Wednesday night formally revoking his candidacy. “It’s the best way to unite our nation.”
“I know there was a time and a place for long years of experience in public life,” he added. “There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices—yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.”
“Lead with consistency”
The advice Kearney dispensed to retail seems prescient in light of Harris’ budding presidential campaign. With shoppers feeling stuck and uneasy, the group advised brands to “lead with consistency” with a “view to the future.”
There’s a clear parallel between government and individual economic well-being, Kearney wrote—and recent political tremors illuminate consumers’ feelings of defeat on a household scale.
“Governmental policies shape economic outcomes and individual consumers are forced to make the best of the economies they live in,” the group wrote. “The sooner people feel that they may actually have some (even limited) expanded agency, the more they will want to expand that agency and the faster they will stop being resigned.”
Reaching shoppers where they are is a nuanced art form. Too many ad campaigns remind consumers that they’re stressed, and in fact, reinforce those emotions with messaging that trends negative, the group said. (“‘Look, everyone is strapped for cash these days!’”). Instead, retailers and brands should “let the product speak for itself, rather than reiterating the multitude of stresses.”
In a crowded field of players, there will be winners and losers across categories, from “running shoes to concerts to mainstream apparel retailers,” the report said. Brands should distill their campaigns down to the basics and resist muddying the message. “Consumers are spending where they feel like it is worth it and not spending where they do not,” analysts wrote.
“The solution to righting the consumer ship is a large and powerful dose of clarity, certainty, and honesty,” they added. “Say who you are, be who you are, lead with the strongest offering.”
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