According to Polk, a research firm, consumers are keeping their new cars a record 63.9 months, up 4.5 months from a year ago and up 14 percent since the end of 2008. People are upgrading cell phones on average every 18 months, up from 16 months a few years ago, industry analysts told the Times. Laptops are being held onto an average of four years and four months, a month longer than they did a year ago.
It isn't the same across all items. According to NPD, consumers in 2010 upgraded major kitchen appliances like refrigerators faster than they did in 2008 or 2009. Similar trends were seen in smaller kitchen and personal care appliances.
But the Times also found people, for example, mending, sewing and taking extra steps to remove stains in bids to delay apparel purchases. Consumers are also said to be looking to make staples such as razor blades, laundry detergent and toothpaste last beyond their typical product life cycle.
"People are squeezing the last bit out of the shampoo. They seem to be adding more water to really squeeze out the last bit," said Ali Dibadj, an analyst who covers consumer products companies for Sanford C. Bernstein. "Consumers are doing their best to conserve -- we're seeing it again and again and again."
The article pondered whether a long-term shift in spending habits will occur similar the Great Depression, when Americans "held onto antediluvian dishware and stored canned goods until rust formed on the lids." But other retail observers and historians argued that as spending and credit return, "so will yearnings to favor brands, fashion and novelty over practicality."