Nearly 75% of consumers have less confidence to spend today as inflation hits a 40-year high according to a new First Insight report, The State of Consumer Spending: Inflation Impacting Consumer Confidence. This report reveals that 97% of consumers are reprioritizing how they spend in order to afford their top four most critical purchases: groceries (56%), gasoline (43%), housing costs (29%), and healthcare (18%). Eighty-two percent of respondents indicated that they are searching for less expensive ways to shop through sales and promotions, 40% are staying within a budget, and 28% are simply buying less overall.

“With inflation at 8.5%, rising prices will continue to impact all businesses for the foreseeable future,” says Greg Petro, CEO, First Insight. “Companies must work to get an immediate understanding of how consumers are going to change in the days and weeks ahead by engaging with them directly to anticipate and respond.”