COMING to a high street near you: the Primark Effect. The cut-price clothes chain announced a jump in profits last week and said sales nearly matched those of market leader Marks & Spencer.

In a telling remark, fashion expert Jane Procter said: “It’s either Prada or Primark. I don’t see the point of shopping anywhere in between.”

I believe she has captured a fast-spreading mood. It is now cool to buy jeans for a fiver, or dresses for £8.

This is a classic sign of economic downturn. Only two years ago dinner-party chatter was all about the best buy-to-let deals, but saving money is the 2008 conversation topic.

Which? magazine has found that four in ten of us fear we will be hit by the credit crunch, and the shell-shocked banks are routinely turning down credit-card applications.

Shona Dobbie, head of the Alliance Trust Research Centre, said: “Our latest report highlights that consumers are starting to feel the pinch of financial reality, and are showing signs of reining in spending.

“Households are facing increased headwinds in terms of their finances as food and energy prices move higher, house-price growth slows and equity markets decline. These combined factors give us a bleak view of consumer spending and confidence for the next 12 months.”

The good news is that it is becoming easier to ensure you do not spend unnecessarily, thanks to websites such as Uswitch, Gocompare, Mysupermarket, Moneysupermarket and Moneysavingexpert. People who trawled best-buy tables used to be derided as rate tarts, but now it’s okay to admit you are a geek.

This adds up to a grim outlook for the economy, and therefore the stock market, but some companies will thrive, and you could do worse than pick up a few shares in Primark’s parent, Associated British Foods (ABF), which I first tipped a year ago.

Its main businesses are bread, tea and sugar, through brands such as Kingsmill, Ryvita, Twinings and Ovaltine, which are about as recession-proof as you can imagine.

It’s a complex portfolio as politicians like to play with the prices of basic foods. That means it may not be as easy for ABF to pass on higher commodity costs as it has been for BP or Shell – though they will be passed on one way or another.

ABF shares aren’t cheap, yielding only 2.2%, but the dividend is expected to keep rising and the tide is definitely in the company’s favour.