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UK Consumers (uk + consumer)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting60%

Selected Abstracts

Beyond drinking: the role of wine in the life of the UK consumer

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 5 2007
Caroline Ritchie
Abstract Since the development of wine sales via supermarkets in the UK in the 1970s wine consumption has more than doubled so now the UK is the largest wine import market (by value) in the world. Wine is now consumed by approximately 61% of the UK adult population on a regular basis. For many social wine consumption has become part of their lifestyle. Given the international importance of the UK wine market, plus the increasing incorporation of wine into regular consumption behaviour, it is remarkable how few academic studies have been undertaken into the consumption behaviour of moderate, social UK wine consumers. This paper aims to start developing that knowledge, thus adding to our understanding of consumer behaviour in general. The results show that consumers use wine in very sophisticated ways via purchasing, gifting and consumption. The findings also show that social interaction with wine varies significantly, dependant upon occasion and environment. Behaviour also varies if the purchase, as gift and/or for consumption, is perceived as a private or public activity. This paper places UK wine consumer behaviour within a social context, and is able to show that all consumers display a range of behaviours in relation to wine which are situation and occasion dependant. [source]

UK Household Debt: A Threat to Growth or Stability?

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 1 2005
Article first published online: 2 FEB 200
The liberalisation of credit constraints in the 1970s for UK consumers has had important implications for the housing market and consumer spending. This paper by John Muellbauer1 examines the factors that have driven soaring consumer debt and house price levels; in particular those observed since the mid-1990s. By relying on recent econometric evidence and trends in credit availability, real income per head, nominal and real after tax mortgage rates, measures of perceived risk and broad demographic trends, it also analyses the prospects for house prices, mortgage debt and unsecured debt over the coming years. The outlook is for a ,soft landing' in the housing market and associated declines in the rate of growth of consumer debt, which, although probably not smooth, does suggest the underlying situation is more benign and less crisis-prone than it was in 1988,89. [source]

Mortgage credit conditions in the UK

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 3 2002
John Muellbauer
It is widely perceived that credit conditions for UK consumers, particularly in the mortgage market, have been radically liberalized since the 1970s. The implications for the housing market and consumer spending have been important. This article by John Muellbauer draws on a 1997 paper by the author which examined data from the Survey of Mortgage Lenders to learn, from information about loan-to-value ratios of first-time buyers, classified by region, about changes in mortgage credit conditions. By controlling for economic and demographic influences on credit conditions, a single time-varying index of mortgage credit conditions was extracted from these SML data. This index rises in the 1980s, peaking towards the end of the decade. It retraces part of its rise in the early 1990s before rising again by 1995 to a level not far below the previous peak. The article considers whether more recent data suggest a further liberalisation of mortgage credit conditions. It draws on joint research with others to discuss possible implications for consumer spending, house prices, the volume of property transactions and mortgage defaults. [source]

Consuming lives, consuming landscapes: interpreting advertisements for cafédirect coffees

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2004
Caroline Wright
This paper analyses newspaper advertising for the fairtrade coffee company Cafédirect, focusing particularly on the ways UK consumers are urged to transform unequal social relations with coffee producers through consumption. The paper argues that whilst producers' lives are rendered ,knowable' to potential consumers, the reverse is not true. In addition, consumer gain is privileged over producer gain, with the commodity imbued with the ,authentic' lives and landscapes of coffee production. Thus, the ,public face' of development portrayed is that UK consumers can ,make a difference'. However, attracting potential consumers may depend on representations which are embedded in unequal power relations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]