Consumption Patterns

Consumption patterns characterize individual, group, and community use of the means and wealth for subsistence, enculturation, comfort, and enjoyment. They have quality and/or quantity characteristics anchored to different lifestyles. Specific factors characterize consumption patterns during different historical periods and in different regions. Increasing consumption has been a general trend in the evolution of human civilization. This has resulted in the modern and postmodern consuming society of the industrial and technological era, when consumption of many products has been higher than needed. The reason is the changing type of consumer: from a traditional consumer of fixed needs, toward a consumer of endless needs and wants.

The general classification of consumption patterns includes nine clusters with eight subclusters in the first group: food, beverages, and tobacco (bread and cereals, meats, fish, dairy products, fats and oils, fruit, and vegetables, beverages and tobacco, and other food products); clothing and footwear; housing; household furnishings and operations; medical care and health; recreation; transportation and communications; education; and other items. A variant is the classification based on nutrition, mobility, housing, clothing, health, and education as functional components of lifestyle.

Globalization and worldwide income growth have been increasing the similarities across countries in what consumers eat and where they shop. A crucial factor for change in the 21st century is the evolving of the sustainable style of life with attention to the environment and the increasing role of sustainable products.

Analysis suggests that low-, middle-, and high-income countries all respond differently to changes [Page 155]in income and food prices. As a result of the global economic crisis, poor families in Asia, for instance, spend more than half their household income on food and are bearing the brunt of the economic burden. In many countries of the world, including in eastern Europe, the incomes of a significant percentage of the population are not enough for subsistence and people experience hunger. In this case, the consumption pattern of using the entire income for necessities can be observed. Another characteristic of the early 21st century is the changing social profile of consumers according to changing incomes. The Internet and the knowledge economy have been creating new wealthy segments while others, whose incomes were based on property and traditional sectors of the economy, have experienced a limitation in the consumption of luxuries.

Age preferences are well established in some patterns of consumption. For instance, pizza restaurants and burger bars are more popular among the younger generation, while older people prefer pubs and restaurants. However, children and adults of different ages are both consumers of new products such as video games.

Consumption patterns depend on traditions, cultures, a changing economic base, and many other factors including even ideology (e.g., religious beliefs). They are socially determined and abrupt shifts in attitude and practice that can be observed. Settlements of tobacco lawsuits followed by an increase in cigarette prices is a good example. Increased knowledge of nutrition changes food consumption patterns toward healthier food worldwide, especially in the United States. The turn toward preventive health as a leading social agenda expands the role of alternative medicine that, in many cases, can become the preferred service for many people. This creates a conflicting consumption pattern between traditional and conventional medicine. An example of a complementary pattern of consumption would be the combination of slow and fast food based on health criteria and on the limits of income. Low-income segments of society have often consumed substitutes for luxuries that create a pattern of consumption that includes secondhand products.

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