Consumer Behavior

Austin – October 28, 2026 -- About 84% of outdoor recreation consumers say product price increases would affect their future purchase decisions, up from roughly 74% in 2023, according to Rollick's 2026 Future of Buying Study. The survey drew on 17,764 recent shoppers across 31 RV, marine and powersports brands.

Buying cycles lengthen across RV, marine and powersports

In RV, 45% of shoppers now take four months or longer to complete a purchase, a 12-percentage-point increase since 2023. In marine, 40% take four months or more. In powersports, 51% spend more than one month shopping before buying.

Rollick concludes that brands and dealers need long-term lead nurture strategies to stay engaged through the extended decision period.

Cleveland – October 19, 2026 -- Sherwin-Williams Industrial Wood has released Industrial Wood Colormix® 2027, a forecast that sorts emerging wood color, stain and finish directions into three collections: Revive, Reignite and Reconnect.

The Industrial Wood DesignHouse developed the forecast. It targets manufacturers, designers, architects and specifiers, and is meant to translate broader lifestyle trends into finish solutions they can apply.

Research from the Greensboro DesignHouse underpins the three collections

The trends draw on ongoing research by the Sherwin-Williams DesignHouse in Greensboro, North Carolina. The team studies cultural shifts, consumer behavior, architectural trends and material influences to identify design directions for the wood finishing industry.

United States – – October 18, 2026 -- Seventy percent of Americans buy food or drinks from fast food restaurants at least once a month, and 30% do so weekly, according to YouGov's Best Bites 2026: U.S. restaurant brand rankings.

Younger, middle-income diners drive weekly fast food demand

Of weekly fast food diners, 51% are under 45 and 49% live in middle-income households. Value and discount menus are the biggest drivers of visits, followed by a clean dining environment.

Taco Bell takes 30.3% of votes for best tacos and burritos

Taco Bell leads its category by nearly 10 points over Chipotle, the widest margin among the categories YouGov highlights.

Burgers are a much tighter race. Five Guys leads with 15.5% of Americans naming it best for burgers, just ahead of Burger King at 15.0% and In-N-Out Burger at 12.1%.

Atlanta – October 15, 2026 -- Popmenu has launched Spotlight Menu, a video-led menu product that pairs its SEO and AEO tools with Instagram-style dish videos, as U.S. consumers cut restaurant spending to an average of $100 a week from $115 in June 2025.

The product is aimed at helping restaurants rank higher in Google and AI searches and win more orders. Popmenu serves more than 12,000 restaurants globally.

Popmenu survey finds 82% of U.S. diners favor menus with photos and reviews

In a 2026 Popmenu survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, 82% said they are more likely to choose restaurants whose online menus feature photos and reviews over text-only menus. The same share said they are more likely to order a dish that has a video than one with only a photo.

Brooklyn, N.Y. – – October 08, 2026 -- Secondhand shopping in the United States has expanded far beyond thrift-store apparel, with 76% of Americans buying used goods in the past 12 months and 89% having done so at some point, according to a new report from The Consumer Collective.

Luxury resale emerges as the fastest-growing category among younger buyers

The firm's "Second Nature: The State of Secondhand Shopping in America" report found 49% of consumers already buy luxury items secondhand or would consider it, a figure that climbs to nearly 80% once undecided shoppers are included. Gen Z (61%) and Millennials (60%) lead this trend, more than double the 27% rate among consumers aged 62 and older. Condition and authenticity remain the top barriers cited by shoppers hesitant to buy used luxury goods.

San Jose, Calif. – October 07, 2026 -- Secondhand shopping has become a monthly habit for 47% of global consumers, up from 35% in 2025, according to eBay's 2026 Recommerce Report released today.

Household budgets now lean on resale, survey of 10,500 consumers shows

The report, based on surveys of more than 10,500 consumers and over 1,700 eBay sellers, found 70% of global shoppers consider secondhand buying important for managing household budgets. Some 76% say they shopped for secondhand goods in the past year, and 89% plan to spend the same or more on recommerce next year.

San Diego – – October 02, 2026 -- A national survey of 5,000 U.S. adults has found that Americans rate a family birthday party as a more awkward setting for discussing inheritance than a funeral, upending assumptions about when families confront estate planning. Trust & Will's 2026 Death & Inheritance Report found 63% of respondents call a birthday the most awkward occasion for the conversation, compared with 41% for a funeral or wake and just 32% for an ordinary phone call.

Christmas ranks as both the top trigger and the top occasion families avoid

Christmas is the most common holiday prompt for inheritance discussions, cited by 16% of respondents, yet it is simultaneously the occasion Americans most actively avoid for the same topic, at 37% -- more than double any other occasion and the top avoidance answer in all 50 states.

Rochester, N.Y. – October 02, 2026 -- Multifocal contact lenses ranked as the fourth most selected anti-aging product category among U.S. consumers aged 38 and older, tying with fitness memberships and aesthetic dental care and outranking cosmetic procedures, according to new CooperVision research.

Survey of 752 U.S. adults exposes a wide awareness gap in presbyopia care

The report, "Unmet Opportunities: Multifocal Contact Lenses and the Anti-Aging Movement (U.S.)," surveyed 752 American adults aged 38 and up, combining the findings with market data on healthy-aging attitudes. Despite ranking high among 10 anti-aging categories once consumers were introduced to the product, more than half of respondents reported little to no familiarity with multifocal contact lenses or did not recognize the term.

Los Angeles – October 01, 2026 -- Clean Power Alliance (CPA) will eliminate generation charges entirely from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for more than 4,000 Southern California households as part of a two-year pilot testing whether zero-cost daytime electricity shifts consumer behavior.

CPA zeroes out generation rates during an eight-hour daily window

Under the Time-Of-Use-SMART (TOU-SMART) pilot, participants will pay $0 per kilowatt-hour for generation during CPA's super-off-peak period, while on-peak charges from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. remain elevated and overnight off-peak rates from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. will rise slightly. CPA estimates customers could save hundreds of dollars annually by shifting activities like EV charging, laundry and HVAC use into daylight hours, with additional savings available to customers enrolled in CPA's EV SmartCharge program.

Miami – September 30, 2026 -- Analysis of more than 2.5 million boats across Florida, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia found that just 6% to 13% of repeat buyers stay with the same manufacturer on their next purchase, according to new data from Boats Group.

Repeat owners make up a quarter of the market but rarely return to the same brand

Boats Group identified approximately 637,000 repeat owners—those associated with two or more boats—among the records studied. Repeat owners represented 25.6% of owners in Florida, 31.3% in Ohio, 20.6% in Virginia, and 18.0% in Texas. Despite this scale, brand loyalty on the next purchase ranged from just 6% to 13% across all four states.