NRF: Jobs color consumers’ holiday spending plans
-- Home Textiles Today, 10/20/2009 9:33:00 AM
Washington – As the economy and job outlook weigh on the minds of a consumers, a new holiday shopping destination has emerged: thrift shops.
The National Retail Federation’s latest Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey found that 11.4% plan to by gifts and other holiday merchandise at thrift stores or resale shops, the first time that category has shown up in the survey, according to NRF vp Ellen Davis, who discussed the results today during a conference call.
The majority of holiday shoppers (70.1%) plan to shop discounters this year, though more than half (55.8%) will also visit department stores, grocery stores (45.0%), the Internet (42.4%), clothing stores (33.8%) and electronics stores (31.8%).
The importance of selection, quality, convenience and customer service declined as motivating factors for store selection this year. No surprisingly, sales/discounts (43.3%) emerged as the chief determiner of where consumers will shop.
Most consumers consider the employment situation as the key indicator of the economy’s health, according to Phil Rist, evp of strategic initiatives for BigResearch, which conducted the NRF survey.
“It’s all about the jobs,” he said, adding that 15.4% of respondents know someone who’s laid off. That compares to 14% last year and 11.7% in 2007. “They’ll be looking to the job market to see when they should feel better.”
Consumers plan to cut spending this year in every category except food, said Davis. Spending on holiday decorations is expected to fall to $40.75 per household this year from $43.45 in ’08.
While three-fourths of shoppers’ holiday budget will be spent on gifts, they’re cutting back the least on the amount they will spent on family (-2%). The budget ax will fall most heavily on gifts for friends (-17%) and co-workers (-15%). Consumers plan to spend about 5% less on gifts for people like babysitters, teachers and clergy.
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