The recession has changed people’s shopping habits

“WE WON’T let up,” insisted Bob McDonald, the boss of Procter & Gamble (P&G), at the annual shareholder meeting of the world’s biggest consumer-goods firm on October 12th. He promised that P&G was still on track to have 5 billion customers by 2015. But it is a struggle for the maker of Pampers nappies and Fairy washing-up liquid. “Many of the economies in which we operate are still recovering from recession,” Mr McDonald admits.

P&G and its archrival Unilever, another global consumer-goods firm, had a grim time last year: profits plummeted. This year has been only slightly better. Economies are still ailing, and the cost of raw materials is climbing. …