Americans are going on a spending spree.
In a post-stimulus, increasingly vaccinated world, they’re ready to live like it’s 2019 again. They’re buying dresses, jeans, and crop tops and booking beauty services like mani-pedis and haircuts for their hot vaxx summer. They’re taking public transit, dining at bars and restaurants, and taking flight.
It’s good news for the economy, which needs Americans to spend a good portion of the $2.6 trillion they’ve saved during the pandemic to help fuel what could be the biggest boomtime in a generation.
But something is different — the spending on private or homebound matters, which spiked during lockdown, is staying high. Americans’ yearlong stint inside boosted the homebody economy, a phrase coined in 2018 by Vox’s Kaitlyn Tiffany coined to describe the growing market among millennials, who couldn’t afford to do much but stay at home. Now, many Americans seem to be enjoying this way of life, and it doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.
Home spending grew at a strong pace in April, according to a Bank of America Research note from May 14. It found that for the week ending May 8th, the average daily spending in home categories grew by 37.8% over a two-year basis. A recent survey by McKinsey & Co. found that consumers intend to continue the investments they made in their home life…
