Consumers Turn to Home Entertainment as Budgets Tighten over Recession Fears
Unemployment is rising, real estate values are falling and consumers are getting the jitters about the economy. But it's a great market if you're selling bathroom fixtures, body oils or Billy Joel tapes.</br></br>The reason: For many Americans, trimming the household budget begins at home. "The home becomes more the center for one's life when times are hard," says Lonnie Fogel, spokesman for Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc. As a result, bad times mean a boom demand for products that appeal to the stay-at-home-and-save crowd.</br></br>Northeast real estate markets are in the pits, but Home Depot's nine home-and-building materials stores in the region are having a growth in sales of kitchen cabinets, whirlpools, power tools and other home improvement items. Home Depot even opened new stores in Connecticut and on Long Island in New York this fall. Both regions set record sales on opening day.</br></br>When people aren't buying new houses, "they will decide to make their {old} homes more comfortable and act on repairs that have been postponed," Mr. Fogel explains. "If people are looking for ways to save money they're going to do more themselves."</br></br>"Recessions, that kind of stuff, are good for the record industry," says Stan Golman, senior vice president of retail operations at Tower Records, a unit of MTS Inc., in Sacramento, Calif. "People have to buy lower cost entertainment."