Confusion by sailors who are fellow consumers (9)
I believe the answer is:
messmates
'who are fellow consumers' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'confusion by sailors' is the wordplay.
'confusion' becomes 'mess' (mess can mean confusion or chaos).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'sailors' becomes 'mates' (mate is a kind of sailor).
'mess'+'mates'='MESSMATES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for messmates that I've seen is " Fellow workers os ship - they eat together".)