Consumer Spending in NYC during the COVID-19 Outbreak

We are providing a weekly update on changes in consumer spending to help our members better understand which New York City industries and businesses are most impacted by COVID-19.

Consumer spending data, provided by Earnest Research, is derived from a panel of nearly 6 million U.S. consumers, including 21,000 New York City households.

Overall: March 12-18

Consumer spending in New York City was up 2% year-over-year.

While the number of transactions declined 11%, average transaction size increased 14%. This change in consumer spending behavior may stem from increased stockpiling tendencies in anticipation of a “shelter in place” order, which was enacted the following week.

Top Performing New York City Industries

• Grocers’ sales increased 76% relative to the same period last year, the largest growth of any category. Stockpiling behavior was evident in grocery spending, as average transaction size increased 42% while the number of sales across grocers ticked up 24%.
• The 19% increase in finance expenditures was driven by a 193% increase in spending on broker-dealers, which includes inflows into brokerage accounts like Charles Schwab and Robinhood.
• Spending on specialty food and beverage increased 48%. Spending on alcohol delivery services, a subcategory of specialty food and beverage, also rose 48%.

Underperforming New York City Industries

• Spending on travel decreased 55%, the largest year-over-year drop of any category. Spending on airlines declined 60%.
• Businesses in the retail sector suffered: Gift and décor stores’ sales declined 46%, apparel and accessories sales were down 46% and department store spending declined 38%.
• Transportation-related expenditures dropped 34%.
  Mass Transit: -58%
  NYC Taxis: -47%
  Ride Shares (e.g. Uber): -32%

Notes: (1) Earnest’s data excludes cash transactions and primarily captures transactions at medium and large businesses; unbanked and lower-income populations are underrepresented and (2) Data releases have a one-week lag to allow for processing time.