What's Inside

The Coresight Research weekly US Consumer Survey Insights series takes a regular temperature check on US consumers’ behaviors and sentiment, based on exclusive proprietary survey data.

This week, in addition to our usual weekly findings on consumer sentiment, activities and shopping patterns, we dive into findings on department store shopping specifically. Where are department store shoppers making purchases, and what categories are they buying?

The latest data in this report are from our survey conducted on February 10, 2025, with headline findings on the dominance of Kohl’s to the popularity of apparel categories.

Data in this research report are our latest proprietary survey findings on:

• Whether consumers have bought from a department store in the past three months
• Popular retailers and product categories among department store shoppers
• Consumers’ expectations for the economy overall and for their own personal financial situation—plus, breakdowns of our findings by income
• Where consumers have bought food and nonfood products from in the last two weeks
• What consumers have bought in-store and online in the last two weeks
• Activities that consumers have done in the past two weeks

Companies mentioned in this research report include: Amazon, Bloomingdale’s, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Walmart

Other relevant research:

• 2025 Tariffs: Impacts on the US Consumer Economy—Infographic
• US Department Stores—Retail 2025 Sector Outlook: Softness To Continue, Despite Beauty Outperformance
• All our coverage of department stores
• The Coresight Research US Consumer Survey Databank provides additional insight into US consumer behaviors from our weekly surveys.
• The Market Sizes Databank offers an overview of key retail market or sector sizes, including Coresight Research projections for future years.