Rolling out the dividend barrel

IS BEER a discretionary purchase or a consumer staple? Experts reckon that it should be a staple. But why?

Consumer staples are products that we must buy on a regular basis. So, food and detergents, and the myriad of items that we find on our supermarket shelves are considered consumer staples. We don't have much choice about whether we buy them. Consequently, the companies that make these products tend to do well in both good times and bad. They could do even better, when economies are slowing.

That is because consumers might have to cut back on consumer discretionary when times are tough. These are goods and services that we don't need to buy. We don't, for instance, need go out and buy new clothes or a new TV set. So, consumer discretionary tends to take a back seat when an economy is not doing well.