Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The 10 Biggest Losers

Landline phone service has been the single biggest loser of the past decade. In 2010, only 62.5 percent of households paid a landline phone bill during the average quarter, down from 94.4 percent during the average quarter of 2000--a whopping 32 percentage point decline in the percentage of households buying the service. At the other extreme, cell phone service was the biggest gainer during the decade, with the percentage of households spending on cell service during the average quarter climbing by 44 percentage points between 2000 and 2010, to 64.8 percent.

The other top-10 losers of the 2000-to-2010 time period experienced declines ranging from 23 percentage points for film to 10 percentage points for newspaper subscriptions. Here is the list of the 10 products and services with the largest decade-long decline in the percentage of households buying them...

1. Landline phone service
2. Film
3. Photo processing
4. Personal care services
5. Video rentals
6. Women's hosiery
7. Professional dry cleaning
8. CDs, records, and audiotapes
9. Life insurance
10. Newspaper subscriptions

Source: 2000 and 2010 Consumer Expenditure Surveys, unpublished data


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