By: Greg Mitchell A new Gallup Poll in October confirmed a prediction made earlier in the month for E&P Online by Leo Shapiro and Associates: Holiday spending should be up this year. The poll, conducted Oct. 9-12, finds Americans planning to spend an average of $907 on Christmas gifts this season.
This represents an 8% increase over last year, and suggests record spending, considering recent years. Now, will retailers pay newspapers for advertising to take advantage of that?
Gallup's final pre-Christmas measure of consumer spending intentions in each of the past few years (conducted in late November or early December) has ranged from $753 (in 2002) to $862 (in 2004). Today's projected $907 average is a record for this Gallup measure, which originated in 1989 and has been administered annually since 1999. And Gallup notes that the spending estimates tend to increase as the holiday season progresses.
Much of this year's gain comes from those hoping to spend $2,500 to $5,000, but younger women could also "be one of the strongest engines of holiday spending this year," Gallup noted in its Oct. 23 report. "Women aged 18 to 49 plan to spend an average $1,042 ? a bit higher than the $944 among men of the same age," and also topping older men.
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