Oyebode Rofiat

The purchasing power of people says a lot about how they behave and this may be as a result of their income, and how important the goods and services they want to buy are to them in terms of quantity and quality. This is not far-fetched from the way people react to increases or decreases in price and tells a lot about consumer behavior.

According to an article on Forbes Advisor, 1 USD is now equal to 951.40 naira [at the time of research], and with this rate, we can say there is inflation in most of the country and this greatly affects the way people behave towards the goods and services they are paying for. According to a University of Ibadan student, he said: “Before I didn’t care about the extra money or charges on goods or products before the increase in dollar rate but now because of how hard the economy is, I have to go the extra mile to get my goods at a cheaper rate and cut down unnecessary spending or expenses”.

People tend to react in several ways when there is a hike in goods depending on how important the goods or services are to them. For instance, when there is a hike in daily needs like food, petrol, and the like there seems to be more demand but a reduction in the quantity that is being bought. But, for goods that a consumer consumes for personal utility, there is likely a chance that people will not even make an effort to buy them as they become listed at the bottom of the list of consumer preferences because of the change in disease
In conclusion, consumer behavior in hard times boils down to the importance of the particular goods and how important the goods are to them and this plays a huge role in the scale of preference and other factors attached to it.