CHARLOTTE, NC — Consumers are expressing growing optimism over the state of the U.S. economy, and are more bullish about their personal spending plans than they were 12 months ago.

That is the key finding of new research conducted by the Research Institute for Cooking & Kitchen Intelligence (RICKI), which interviewed 1,510 consumers across the country last spring and another 2,906 consumers recently to assess opinions about the economy.

Research findings were made available exclusively to Kitchen & Bath Design News by the Charlotte, NC-based RICKI, an independent, membership-based organization of manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and publications whose revenues come from sales related to activities that take place in the kitchen, including kitchen remodeling.

“Consumers have clearly become increasingly more optimistic about the country’s overall economic health over the course of the year,” says N. Riley Kirby, RICKI’s chief of research. “For example, there are now twice as many people describing the economy as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ as there were this time last year. And the number of people who feel the state of the economy is ‘poor’ dropped by half, down from 44% describing it as ‘poor’ in 2009 to 23% currently.”

According to RICKI, although a majority of survey respondents believe the U.S. economy is still weak, they are far more positive than they were in the 2009 RICKI survey.

In addition, consumers typically view the state of the nation’s economy more negatively than their own personal finances.

In both study periods, respondents express far more positive feelings about their own financial situation, and their sentiments are relatively unchanged year to year, RICKI said.

Improved Spending Plans

Participants in the two RICKI studies were presented with four statements describing personal spending habits and asked to select which of the four best describes their spending compared to the 12 months prior. Findings indicate that spending patterns have not changed significantly over the course of the past year, RICKI said.

“As we found in last year’s economic study, around one-third of respondents say they have cut out spending on all major purchases until the economy improves, while around half have reduced their daily spending but not dramatically,” Kirby observes (see Table 1).

People who had either eliminated or reduced their spending were asked if they are likely to increase their spending when the economy improves, or if they think they will never spend as much as they once did.