Most want better ATM fee disclosure

According to a national study by Aragon Consulting Group’s research division in St. Louis, the majority of Americans (81 percent) say they support legislation that would compel financial institutions to provide consumers with ATM surcharge information every time they use their ATM card. Meanwhile, 21.1 percent of Americans with ATM cards, who were asked, do not think they ever incur transaction fees for ATM card usage and 14.6 percent do not know whether they do or not. The remaining 64.4 percent of ATM card users say they incur fees for ATM transactions: with every transaction (8.8 percent); only when using another bank’s ATM machine (51.5 percent); or only for out-of-state transactions (4.1) percent. (Numbers do not equal 100 percent due to rounding.)

Shopping services woo car buyers

Close to three million new vehicle buyers will turn to a shopping service for help choosing a vehicle this year, a number that has almost doubled over the past few years, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 1997 Alternative Shopping Services Study: From Showroom to Cyberspace.

The report shows that about half of new vehicle buyers who use shopping services do so via the Internet. Auto-By-Tel as well as manufacturer-sponsored Internet services. This part of the market is expected to Wow even more with the arrival of new entrants, like Micro soft’s CarPoint, and increasing dealer participation and improved Interact and dealer service. "This is a significant finding because it shows consumers have quickly turned away from shopping only at dealerships as Internet sources have become available," says Jon Osborn, manager of auto sales research at J.D. Power and Associates, Agoura Hills, Calif. "For years only 11 percent of new vehicle buyers had turned to sources other than dealers for vehicle shopping assistance. Now more than 20 percent are using shopping services. This is just the beginning of vehicle shopping outside the showroom."

The study also found those shopping through alternative sources are mostly considering four or more makes and were disenchanted with their past dealer purchase experience. They are using these alternative services to help them narrow their list and make an educated, value-conscious decision.

The profile of the shopper using these services is distinctive. They are younger than the traditional dealer shopper; have higher income than dealer shoppers; buy European nameplates 1.5 times as often; are less satisfied with prior purchase experience at a dealership; and consider a larger number of nameplates.

Americans skeptical of newer vaccinations

Although most adults believe that traditional childhood vaccinations are safe and effective, a study by CDB Research & Consulting Inc., New York, found that their faith wavers when it comes to newer vaccinations.Awareness of available vaccinations does not appear to increase consumers’ mast in the medications. For example, while 85 percent of adults are famifiar with the influenza vaccine, only 62 percent of them believe the vaccination to be effective in preventing the onset of the flu. Similarly, only 68 percent of adults feel that the vaccination is safe.

The overall awareness of vaccinations dramatically decreases with more unusual illnesses. Even advertising dollars don’t help. For example, only half of the adults surveyed know of the existence of vaccinations for hepatitis A, even though SmithKline Beecham, makers of Havrix, the hepatitis A vaccine, has spent $12.6 million advertising to consumers since 1995, according to Competitive Media Reporting.

The awareness level is similarly low for hepatitis B and pneumonia (53 percent hepatitis A, 54 percent hepatitis B, 49 percent pneumonia). These adults are also more likely to doubt the safety and efficacy of the vaccinations for these less common illnesses (hepatitis A: 52 percent believe effective, 54 percent believe safe; hepatitis B: 54 percent believe effective, 56 percent believe safe; pneumonia: 60 percent believe effective, 64 percent believe safe).

Far more faith is extended to traditional childhood vaccinations (polio: 79 percent believe effective, 78 percent believe safe; tetanus: 82 percent believe effective, 77 percent believe safe; diphtheria: 74 percent believe effective, 73 percent believe safe; tuberculosis: 64 percent believe effective, 63 percent believe safe).

When questioned about the development of future vaccinations for AIDS or cancer, the majority of adults are skeptical about the possibility of creating a vaccine that is both safe to administer and effective in preventing either disease (AIDS: 64 percent not effective, 61 percent not safe; cancer: 65 percent not effective, 58 percent not safe).

Despite this apparent disbelief in the power of vaccinations, doctors continue to recommend various vaccines, particularly to their male patients over the age of 55. For instance, during their last three doctor visits, more men than women discussed vaccinations (42 percent men vs. 30 percent women). The majority (52 percent) of these adults are 55+ and live in households without children (40 percent).

Study finds more consumers choosing supermarkets for home meals

Supermarkets have gained significantly in the take-home meal market, according to the latest consumer trends study by Food Marketing Institute (FMI), a Washington, D.C., food industry trade group. This year, one in five consumers (22 percent) said supermarkets are their main source for food consumed, but not prepared, at home - a significant increase over recent years and double the level of a decade ago. Supermarkets have become as popular as restaurants for take-home food (21 percent), and while fast-food restaurants still lead, their share slipped significantly (48 percent in 1996 to 41 percent in 1997).

The findings come from FMI’s report "Trends in the United States: Consumer Attitudes & the Supermarket, 1997." The survey was conducted by Abt Associates Inc., Cambridge, Mass.

Supermarkets are offering shoppers meal solutions with products that save time and steps in preparing a home-cooked meal, as well as prepared, ready-to-eat or -heat food products that make it easier to prepare food at home. Their efforts are right on target. The FMI survey shows that consumers crave convenience and generally eat their main meal of the day at home.

Shoppers continue to give their primary supermarket high marks for overall performance this year. The average rating was unchanged at a healthy 8.1 on a scale where 10 means excellent. They shop an average of 2.2 times a week and spend an average of $83 a week for the household, $33 per person. When selecting a primary supermarket, they continue to care most about having a clean, neat store; high-quality produce; high-quality meats; courteous, friendly employees, and use-before/sell-by dates on products.

Even with the high approval ratings, there are challenges for the industry. "It seems that consumers have never been more demanding than they are today," says Michael Sansolo, FMI’s senior vice president. "They are pressed for time. Money is still an issue for many consumers, reflected in their persistent concern about inflation, even though the facts fail to support this perception. Their tastes are increasingly diverse - whether it’s gourmet foods, ethnic foods or organic offerings."

Shoppers increasingly are using frequent shopper programs and credit cards for purchases. They also use some newer features when available in their stores: in-store restaurants (32 percent use these at least once a month); child care (21 percent), and affinity credit cards (21 percent).

They are searching for a wide variety of products and services, especially those that offer convenience, quality and value. This year, more shoppers cite as "very important" several features that can make shopping easier: accepting ATM or debit cards and credit cards; having an in-store pharmacy that fills prescriptions, and having pre-cut, marinated or pre-seasoned meats or ready-to-eat poultry.

The FMI Trends report also shows areas where supermarkets need to improve to meet consumers’ expectations. The industry needs especially to focus on meeting shoppers’ expectations for low prices, personal safety, fast checkouts and accurate shelf tags.

This year, consumers were asked how long they shop and wait in the checkout line on an average visit to their primary supermarket. Nearly half (48 percent) spend 30-60 minutes from store entry to store exit. Over 25 percent spend less than 30 minutes; 23 percent spend more than an hour. Over half of shoppers (59 percent) spend at least five minutes in the checkout line, with 22 percent spending least 10 minutes. Supermarkets must continue to focus on speeding up the checkout, especially during busy hours, Sansolo says.

Among other findings, the Trends study shows that confidence in food safety remains high: 83 percent are completely or mostly confident that food from their supermarket is safe. Their leading concerns are spoilage-related. Also, more than nine in 10 shoppers remain very or somewhat concerned about the nutritional content of what they eat.

Many supermarket products and services that shoppers perceive as useful are not frequently used when available. For example, 67 percent of shoppers say that they would use nutrition and health information at least once a month if it were available at their primary grocery store, but only 58 percent of shoppers use this information at the stores where it is available. Similarly, consumers frequently underestimate the potential use of many of these products and services.

Other study highlights:

  • Half of all shoppers expect their personal circumstances to improve in 1997, continuing an upward trend. Shoppers’ optimistic outlooks point to a solid year ahead for retailers. Confident shoppers will be willing to try new products and services that offer value and convenience.
  • Increasing shoppers’ ratings of product quality, customer service and employee courtesy, and product choice offer the greatest potential to increase consumer satisfaction.
  • In an average month, shoppers visit 2.6 different stores for groceries. Almost half of shoppers visit three or more different stores.
  • One in five shoppers most frequently visit supermarkets to buy food that is eaten at home but not prepared at home. This is a .significant increase over recent years, and double the level of a decade ago.
  • Almost nine in 10 shoppers usually eat their main meal of the day at home. Almost all of these shoppers (96 percent) consider that meal to be home-cooked.
  • Over 60 percent of shoppers have changed products because of information on product nutrition labels, down from 70 percent last year.
  • Shoppers are purchasing products labeled as "low fat" (82 percent), "low cholesterol" (64 percent), "natural" (63 percent), and/or "low salt" (61 percent). Nearly 40 percent of shoppers also seek products labeled "organic."
  • Nearly one in five shoppers (18 percent) holds their supermarket primarily responsible for food safety. More shoppers also take responsibility themselves or count on manufacturers or the government.
  • About half of all shoppers say that they are doing something different as a result of the safe-handling labels on meat products, an increase from last year. For example, in 1997 18 percent of shoppers wash/disinfect counters, cooking areas or utensils after contact with meat, up from 11 percent in 1996. More shoppers in 1997 report washing their hands, cooking properly, not leaving meat out to thaw, and washing meat.
  • Shoppers are very interested in biotechnology and food irradiation as ways to address food safety and product quality issues. Six in 10 shoppers say that they are very likely or somewhat likely to buy products either modified by biotechnology to reduce pesticide use or treated with irradiation to kill germs.

Let the machine take the call

Whether it’s because they’re screening calls or are simply not at home, Americans in growing numbers are having telephone answering machines or some other kind of voice mail handle their incoming telephone calls.

So says the Chilton Research Services Express poll, a nationwide telephone survey of a random sample of Americans ages 18 and older, conducted by Chilton Research Services, Radnor, Pa. In the poll, 73 percent of respondents said that someone in their household uses a telephone answering machine or some sort of voice mail service at home. That’s nearly a 10 percent increase over the April 1996 figure.

Over 87 percent of households with an annual income over $50,000 - perhaps not coincidentally, prime targets for telemarketers - said they use such machines. Other groups in which usage is high include those who have attended college (84 percent) and the 18-to-34 age group (82 percent).

A whopping 89 percent of households that own a computer also own a telephone answering machine or other voice mail device. Demographic groups with low usage include those with less than a high school education (44 percent), households with an annual income below $15,000 (47 percent) and those ages 65 and older (50 percent).

One surprising finding of the Express poll is the widespread home usage of electronic pagers or beepers. Better than one in four responif dents said that someone in their household uses one of these devices at home. That’s a greater percentage than those who use a fax machine at home (13 percent), an electronic home security system (14 percent) or bank-by-phone services (21 percent). Beeper/pager usage is particularly high among the 45-to-54 age group (42 percent), and households with an annual income above $50,000 (40 percent).

The survey also indicates that owners of any one high-tech device are likely to own others as well. For instance, 62 percent of those who use electronic pagers at home also own computers, versus 42 percent of all households. Of those who own a home computer, 28 percent also use a fax machine at home. Conversely, 91 percent of fax machine owners also own a computer.



The Chilton Express telephone omnibus survey was conducted among a sample of 1,012 American men and women ages 18 and older, between April 16 and April 20, 1997. The margin of error for the survey is +/-3 percent.

Seniors spend more on vacations

Americans over the age of 50 spent an average of almost $5,000 on vacation travel in 1996. This was 74 percent more than Americans between the ages of 18-49, according to a national study conducted by Directions for Decisions, Inc., (DFD), a Jersey City, N.J., research firm.

The study on travel patterns is part of a quarterly omnibus survey of the attitudes and opinions of mature Americans on a wide variety of topics. In addition to travel and vacations, the study also included the topics of food, clothing, insurance, and health. Entitled the "Mature Market Omnibus," the study will be conducted quarterly to identify trends among the mature market, a growing segment of the United States population.

In a telephone survey, using a national probability sample representing total U.S. households, responses were obtained from 506 men and women over the age of 50 and 301 respondents between the ages of 18 and 49.

Future quarterly waves will sample 1,000 households in the 50+ market. The study indicates that "age is not an important factor in the decision to travel or the frequency of vacations, but does impact the vacation budget.

It also indicated that:

  • Adults over 50 spent an average of $4,794 on vacations last year versus $2,757 for the younger segment.
  • Roughly seven in 10 respondents, regardless of age, took at least one vacation trip last year (73 percent of respondents ages 18-49 vs. 69 percent of adults 50 and older).
  • Of those who did travel, the younger group took an average of 3.5 vacations last year vs. 3.7 for the older group.

The study also showed that Canada is favored as a destination by the mature market over Europe and Mexico. While 28 percent of mature respon- dents said they had visited Canada during the last five years, versus 13 percent for Europe and 18 percent for Mexico, 52 percent said they planned to visit Canada in the future. This compares with 40 percent who expressed interest in visiting Europe in the future and 31 percent who cited Mexico.

Mature adults like to take their extended families along on vacation. Almost half the respondents - 48 percent - said that they had taken children or grandchildren on a vacation during the past five years and 61 percent said they planned to do so in the future.

Cruise ships have appeal for mature vacationers. While only 16 percent said they had taken a cruise during the last five years, 40 percent said they were interested in taking a cruise in the future.

What back-to-school really means to teens

A recent study shows that what teens most look forward to about going back to school is neither out-fitting themselves with the latest styles nor readying themselves for their classes. Instead, what students are most excited about is the social aspect of school.

The nationwide study of 2,008 12-to 19-year olds by Teenage Research Unlimited, a Northbrook, Ill., research firm, found that seeing friends after summer’s end (89 percent), meeting new people (84 percent), and seeing how people have changed (81 percent) are the top three aspects exciting teens about going back to school.

Teens are also looking forward to parties (78 percent), entering a new grade (77 percent), the social scene in general (71 percent), and shopping for new clothes (70 percent). Teachers and parents will undoubtedly fred consolation in that two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) said they look forward to learning "new things."

Respondents were also asked what they’re least looking forward to about going back to school. There was one overwhelming response: homework. In fact, 83 percent of teens offered this answer. Just more than 40 percent of the total sample said that they’re not looking forward to going to a new school.

The study also found that teens spent an average of $53 a week of their own money during this past summer and $27 a week of their family’s money. Boys outspent girls in total, $82 vs. $78.

Wendy’s wins the taste war

Just about everyone in America eats fast food, but their reasons for choosing a restaurant are as diverse as the menus at the Big Three burger chains. A TeleNation survey conducted by Market Facts, Arlington Heights, Ill., found that among the Big Three fast-food vendors, Wendy’s is America’s favorite, with 37 percent of the vote. Burger King came in second place, with 31 percent, and McDonald’s was third, at 23 percent. Taste of the food was the overwhelming deciding factor for most diners. The survey found 70 percent of respondents cited taste as being most important; 13 percent cited convenience and just 9 percent mentioned price.

Of the Big Three chains, McDonald’s has the fewest taste fans. Of those who cited Wendy’s as their favorite chain, 82 percent said their decision was based on taste. Similarly, 76 percent of Burger King loyalists cited taste as their deciding factor. But just 45 percent of those who prefer McDonald’s said taste was most important to them.

Convenience tends to be more important to McDonald’s lovers than to fans of the other two chains. For example, 29 percent of those who favor Mickey D’s cited convenience as the deciding factor, compared with 11 percent of Burger King devotees and 5 percent of Wendy’s fans.

McDonald’s seems to have better success with young adults than the older crowd: 32 percent of those 18 to 24 said they favored the golden arches, compared with, for example, just 12 percent of people aged 55 to 64.