11.   But whether this is a temporary downturn of a retail cycle or a historic shift in spending patterns is a matter of debate.

12.   Can such people change their spending patterns?

13.   Consumer spending patterns this year have helped keep inventories even with demand.

14.   Consumer spending patterns helped keep inventories even with demand as well.

15.   Even long-time employees are now questioning their job security, analysts said, and spending patterns have shifted accordingly.

16.   For instance, credit card companies use neural networks to analyze the spending patterns on a credit card.

17.   How can the government plan a budget, given the unpredictability of consumer spending patterns?

18.   In retrospect, the big difference between their spending patterns and ours is that they took their materialism straight, while subsequent generations have been conflicted about it.

19.   It ends with a slew of sensible suggestions for bringing New York more in line with spending patterns elsewhere.

20.   Joshua McGee, a software engineer in Thousand Oaks, Calif., said the site had changed his spending patterns.