[Excerpt] Households across the country make decisions every day on how to allocate their earnings, be it for life's necessities such as food and housing or for pleasurable pursuits such as reading and entertainment. These spending patterns may well be specific to regions of the country. Or, more simply, do consumers in the Midwest make different choices about how to spend their dollars than do those in the Northeast, South, or West? Expenditures vary among regions because of many factors: Prices, income, population characteristics, climate, consumer tastes, family size, and so on.