Three components of consumer literacy are named: general, legal, functional

When we talk about a person’s general literacy, we usually mean his vocabulary, knowledge of the rules of grammar and the ability to apply them, without which people would not be able to understand each other when communicating. But general literacy is not enough to understand even a text in your native language if you do not know the meaning of its key words and how the objects they denote are related to each other. Here we need functional literacy, which is the focus of other school subjects – mathematics, foreign languages, physics, computer science, literature, geography, history…

A person’s life, like a text, is a coherent sequence of signs, only instead of words, actions are lined up in it. What has been done cannot be corrected, but the future depends on his will, and his will depends on his understanding of the relationship between his motives, behavior and its consequences. This understanding demonstrates behavioral literacy.

These three components can also be identified in consumer literacy. What is common here is legal literacy at a level that allows the consumer to independently assess the legality of the terms of the contract offered to him, diagnose a violation of his rights, and choose and implement the optimal way to restore them.

The consumer’s functional literacy helps him choose the best for himself from a variety of offers, get into unpleasant situations less often and minimize the damage from his mistakes thanks to the ability to find and correctly understand important information in labeling, descriptions and instructions, contracts, reviews of experts and other consumers. This way, it gives the business signals what to offer, helping to improve the market. And this can be learned.

Behavioral literacy consists of the consumer understanding the impact of different models of his behavior on the quality of life, social well-being and the environment, knowledge of techniques for consciously correcting his consumer behavior.

Consumer literacy is formed from childhood under the influence of personal experience and education. Since personal experience in the family does not always develop habits useful for future life, it is important to begin such education as early as possible, and this is already done in kindergartens with their daily routine, diet, walks and instilling useful skills. But not all children attend kindergartens, and their opportunities at this age are very limited. Therefore, Russian law has given consumers the right to school education in the field of consumer protection, which “is ensured through the inclusion of relevant requirements in federal state educational standards and educational programs.”

However, the implementation of this norm is now reduced to two social studies lessons, in which schoolchildren are taught about consumer rights and the possibilities of their protection – the first time in the 7th grade in general terms, the second time in the 8th grade in relation to financial services. This is completely insufficient to form the foundations of consumer legal literacy, but the oversaturation of the school schedule does not allow increasing the hours on this topic, and it is unlikely that 14 years is the appropriate age for this.

As for the functional and behavioral components of consumer literacy, there are no such requirements in state educational standards and secondary school programs at all. It’s a pity, because having entered the age of active consumption, yesterday’s schoolchildren often find themselves just as helpless in the face of scammers and aggressive marketing as most people of older generations.

Meanwhile, additional training hours are not needed for consumer education. Something else is needed: to lay the foundations of consumer knowledge about the quality of consumer goods and services (from food and medicine to information and financial services), as well as knowledge about consumer behavior in standards and programs across the entire range of basic school subjects. Such an approach of the educational process to the general conditions of the future life of students – and all of them will be consumers – would motivate them by the direct usefulness of the knowledge they receive.

The behavioral component of consumer literacy is now acquiring particular importance for all of humanity, whose sustainable development is threatened by the spread of irrational consumption patterns. Back in 2015, the UN General Assembly appealed to governments, international organizations, businesses, non-governmental organizations and citizens to help change such models.

A year ago, the UN Secretary-General said: “Each of us will have to learn to live more sustainably and reduce our impact on the environment,” Antonio Guterres spoke about the need for consumers to save energy and reduce pollution and waste, use less plastic, resist marketing which encourages them to buy more than they can consume. But what do our schoolchildren know about this? Do teachers talk to them about this? I don’t ask about adults – they are immersed in their own worries…

On September 29, the world celebrated International Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day. On October 16, World Food Day, Bread Day and Healthy Eating Day will be celebrated simultaneously. All this is to remind us of the importance of food for every person, country, planet. And that the number of people suffering from hunger in the world is not decreasing, while many more people undermine their health and shorten their lives with excess nutrition, and a sixth of food products end up in waste and pollute the environment.

In recent years, the World Health Organization has identified excess weight as a major health risk factor. According to Academician V.A. Tutelyan, in Russia it is inherent in every second adult and fourth or fifth child. That is, the syndrome of eating food in excess of a person’s physiological need for energy has become widespread.

Rosstat monitors food consumption and calculates its nutritional and energy value in households, dividing them into ten equal groups (deciles) with different income levels – from the lowest to the highest. According to the latest data on its website, in 2021, the daily energy value of food in the poorest decile was 1968 kcal (24% less than the average value for all 2575 kcal), in the richest – 2845 kcal (10% more than the average).

What is the average energy demand of Russians? The “calorie calculator” website responded that with average physical activity, the energy requirement to maintain one’s weight for a 40-year-old man, 175 cm 75 kg, is 2100 kcal, for a 40-year-old woman, 170 cm 70 kg, it is 1800 kcal. The average requirement for such a couple of 1950 kcal corresponds to the energy value of the actual nutrition of the poorest decile, while everyone else, who is better off, overeats.

Over the past decades, the availability of not only food has increased dramatically, but also thanks to loans for apartments and cars, educational, medical, and tourist services. According to VTsIOM, from 2013 to 2017, the share of Russian families with loans increased from 31 to 58%, after which it gradually decreased to 46% in 2023. This decrease indicates a competent reaction of many consumers to the growing threats to their budgets. However, it is worrying that against this background the share of borrowers among the 60+ group has doubled, whose credit potential has clearly not increased, and whose consumer literacy is questionable.

The information and leisure behavior of consumers has changed even more dramatically. Obtaining information, communicating about interests, with relatives and friends, purchasing goods and services, and even consuming some of them has moved to the Internet. According to recent data from VTsIOM, among those Russians over 18 years of age who use at least one social network or instant messenger, 86% do so every day, on average for 4.5 hours, and young people aged 18–24 years old – for 8 hours.

That is, the needs that require a presence on the Internet are largely satisfied through the time previously devoted to work, study, physical activity, and sleep.

We are not yet very concerned about the dramatic shifts in consumption taking place before our eyes; we are not ready to assess all their consequences. It is all the more important to educate consumers, including regarding the understandable dangers of the virtual world, into which they are now included at an increasingly younger age. This will improve their chances of not losing control of it when they become adults.