Wal-Mart, Kohl's position stores for New Reality - Frugal Shoppers
http://adage.com/article/news/walmart-target-kmart-kohl-s-lead-retail-revolution/233379/

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On reaching new frugal consumer
Ray Allegrezza, Editor-in-chief -- Furniture Today, March 16, 2009
http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/190010-On_reaching_new_frugal_consumer.php

Wesley Hutchinson, a professor of marketing at Wharton, noted that the Great Depression changed consumer behavior and shopping attitudes for a generation. While he's not sure if our current economy will leave an identical psychological scar, he does say "there's a precedent for a very large shift."

Assuming Hutchinson is right, retailers will be selling consumers who acted like my parents, who having lived through the Great Depression, took nothing for granted. They learned early on that you worked for what you wanted and you saved part of each paycheck for the proverbial rainy day.

My folks also were old school when it came to credit. They were not big fans of credit cards and if they did on rare occasion use them, they paid in full the day the bill came in.

They also learned to live within their means. If they couldn't afford something, they did without.

Stephen Hoch, also a professor of marketing at Wharton, recently said that consumers who had learned to trade up when times were good are rapidly learning to trade down. He believes as I do that consumers are finding a new sense of well-being in becoming more discerning shoppers.

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Frugal Shoppers Are Here to Stay
http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/frugal_shoppers_here_to_stay_090626.html

And when the recession ends, shoppers won't stop being frugal. While growth in private-label product sales will come back to earth -- likely in the mid-single digits -- as consumers resume more normal spending patterns, shoppers' decade-or-so-long shift toward favoring private-label products will continue.

Neil Stern, a senior partner at McMillan Doolittle, a retail consulting firm, says that in past recessions, private-label sales growth has spiked and then slowed when the economy improved. But in the past year or so, private label has become "much more public," he says, giving it the push needed to keep growing when recovery begins. "Retailers are more aggressive in advertising it and getting a bit more in your face, talking about [their] private label."