Americans are eating more chocolate because it is an “affordable” luxury. Also moving up because of the recession are mutts and 99-cent music downloads. On the way out are restaurant meals, purebred dogs and theater tickets.
Nordstrom plans to open 13 stores this year, and 10 of them will belong to the discounted Rack chain.
More sample sales are being run online. The Budget Babe reviews three such sites.
More people are shopping at dollar stores, which contributed to Dollar Tree’s 11% rise in profits last quarter.
To lower the cost of higher education more colleges are offering three year degrees.
What other spending trends are you seeing?
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
In the restaurant and bar scene, I notice more restaurants offering specials — whether in the form of happy hours/early bird discounts, prix-fixe menus, no corkage on wines. Also, a lot more places are offering comfort foods (which tends to be cheaper to make as well) such as mac ‘n cheese, braised/stewed dishes, burgers and apple pies.
I’ve read that the movie theaters are doing great, something about escaping problems and mixing with other people. Similarly, I read that Netflix is prospering.
Along the same vein as Diane above, the video game industry is doing well because people are staying at home more and need to be entertained somehow.
Also libraries are seeing more and more customers in this recession as patrons are checking out books instead of buying on amazon and similar sites. Also many libraries let you check out dvds which has been great for me.