QUESTION OF THE WEEK: How Has US Discretionary Consumer Spending Shifted This Year?

We estimate that US consumers spent a total of $417 billion less across 17 major discretionary goods and services categories in the first eight months of 2020 than they did in the same period of 2019. Some discretionary categories, such as media products and sports goods, have gained from the Covid-19 crisis, but these gains have been outweighed by substantial declines in a number of service categories and in clothing and footwear.