Consumer Staples

The basic stuff you need to live. The essentials. The absolute necessities. The category of "consumer staples" includes things like food and drinks, though the definition of "necessary" is somewhat broad (it also includes things like tobacco and beauty products).

In economic terms, these items have inelastic demand. People can't live without them, so demand doesn't fall off dramatically as prices rise. It's also the kind of stuff they'll stand in line to get (or punch their neighbors for) when they hear a hurricane is coming.

The term can be used to categorize companies. People are reluctant to stop spending on consumer staples (you know, because they need at least some of them to live) even when economic times get bad. So investors sometimes look to consumer staples companies as stable,safe havens when things get...rocky.

In a classic consumer staples fund, you'll find stocks like Procter & Gamble (maker of all sorts of household products, like diapers, cleaning supplies, and toothpaste), Coca-Cola (maker of fizzy sugar water), Kraft Heinz (maker of mac & cheese kits and ketchup) and a bunch of retailers that sell this stuff, such as Walmart and Costco.