How Saskatchewan residents spent their money in 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a rollercoaster in many aspects of life.

Financial data collected by Moneris comparing spending habits of Saskatchewan residents in 2021 to those in 2020 confirm that sentiment. Those spending habits have also created two types of consumers.

“One who did very very well out of the pandemic: working from home, working remotely, lost all the expenses associated with commuting and parking and those kinds of things and the pay cheque kept coming,” said University of Regina associate professor of economics, Jason Childs.

“Then you have another group of people who struggled through the pandemic. A lot of them small business owners and the like.”

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Restrictions and mandates didn’t leave the public with many options on how to spend their money, which caused a drastic shift in purchasing patterns.

“Just what’s open and what isn’t and what people are comfortable with, so you’ve got two sides of this. What’s available? And I think people’s attitude towards what they want to do has changed as a result of the lockdowns and pandemic fears and those kinds of things so that’s going to show up in their purchasing patterns,” said Childs

For those that had the means, it caused what’s called substitution spending. For example, Moneris’ data shows a 47-per cent increase from 2020 in household spending just between January and March of 2021.

“Right off the bat you could see people were investing in their home because that’s where they were spending a lot of time. So that could be anything from all of a sudden you have the need for having an area for your kids to do home schooling or you need a place for your home office or whatever the case may be,” said Moneris vice-president of products, Marta Rzeszowska.

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As businesses reopened between April and June of 2021, spending on health and beauty spas increased by 181 per cent from the previous year according to Moneris. Meanwhile, golf courses, gyms and studios all saw a 60-per cent increase in spending from 2020, when many businesses were closed down.

In 2021, Saskatchewan saw a demand like never before for golf tee times and outdoor sports equipment as well as gyms and health services as businesses opened and closed due to pandemic mandates.

But there are spending habits that experts think will outlast the pandemic.

“Health services are going to be there and permanent and we are going to see an increase and shift as the population ages and we deal with the fallout on our health from being locked down for two years,” Childs said.

As we continue in 2022, another spending shift is expected to take place.

“A lot of these activities that people picked up are done in isolation. Human beings are social animals so I think we are fairly quickly going to return to spending more time with each other than alone in isolation with a hobby,” said Childs.

Moneris says they are encouraged by what the 2021 Saskatchewan spending data means for the economy going forward.

“Consumers are ready to get back out there, and once we have restrictions lifted, we do foresee that this will actually trend in a really positive direction and it means that people are happy to get out there and more specifically support their community as well,” said Rzeszowska.