Average American Will Spend $797 on Gifts This Holiday Season

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- While no one knows exactly how much Santa Claus will spend on gifts for good little boys and girls this holiday season (the exact amount is more classified than a CIA budget), a new Gallup poll finds the average American will spend $797 on gifts for his or her loved ones -- down slightly from last year, when the average was $857. Six out of 10 Americans expect to spend at least $500 on gifts, while 28% plan to spend between $100 and $500. Nearly two out of three say this is about the same as the amount they spent last year, while 17% plan to spend more and 18% expect to spend less.

Holiday spending is also very much affected by marital and parental status, with the existence of children and spouses tending to be associated with an increase in the budget for gifts. Married Americans will spend an average of $924, while singles expect to spend around $658. Those with children plan to spend around $867, and again, those without children will spend less -- $631, almost the same as those who are unmarried.

Sound Economy Credited for Increased Holiday Spending
With the U.S. economy still chugging along despite fears of inflation and slowly rising interest rates, the level of optimism among Americans can be correlated to holiday shopping patterns. The latest Gallup poll found 72% of Americans rate economic conditions as "excellent" or "very good," about the same as last year (71%).

By way of comparison, just 27% of those polled in December of 1994 rated the economy as "excellent" or "very good." That same month, Americans told Gallup interviewers they expected to spend an average of $634 on holiday gifts. In 1992, 18% gave the U.S. economy similar ratings, and they expected to spend an average of $605 on gifts.

Little Change in Shopping Patterns
Where will people be shopping this Christmas season? Poring over opinion research data may not be completely necessary to answer this question -- just try to find a parking place at your local mall. Nearly nine out of 10 Americans (87%) say they are likely to shop at a department store, with younger adults far more likely to do so than their elders. Among the 18-29 age group, 70% expect to shop at a department store, while the percentages drop among older respondents -- just 43% of those over 65 expect to do so.

Discount and specialty stores are also popular -- 75% of those polled tell Gallup that it is likely they will do some of their shopping at a discount store, while 64% say they will shop at specialty stores that feature toys, hardware, or other lines of merchandise.

Online Shopping Steady, Catalog Sales Expected to Drop
As more and more Americans obtain Internet access, one might expect a rapid rise in online shopping this holiday season. However, the Gallup poll found just 21% of those polled plan to do some of their shopping at their computers this holiday season. This represents a slight increase from last year, when 19% expected to shop online. In 1998, 10% of those surveyed planned to shop for gifts from their computers.

While online sales appear to be steady, the mail-order industry appears to be facing turbulent times. This year, 34% of those surveyed plan to order holiday gifts from catalogs -- down from last year, when 45% ordered gifts by mail. In 1998, 35% ordered gifts by mail, consistent with Gallup data from 1993, when 34% planned to order from catalogs. It remains to be seen whether last year's higher percentage of mail-order shopping was a one-time occurrence and this year's decline represents a return to traditional levels. It should also be noted that many catalog companies are now offering online counterparts, and this survey does not reflect whether, for instance, customers might peruse a catalog to determine their shopping list and then place the order through that company's Internet site.

Survey Methods

The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,028 adults, 18 years and older, conducted November 13-15, 2000. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Roughly how much money do you think you personally will spend on Christmas gifts this year?

 

	$1,000 or more	$500-999	$250-499	$100-249	Under $100	No opinion	Median	Mean
	%	%	%	%	%	%	$	$
2000 Nov 13-15	33	28	15	13	2	9	500	797
1999 Nov 18-21	35	27	14	13	6	5	500	857
1998 Dec 4-6	24	25	22	14	8	7	561	702
1994 Dec 2-5	22	20	23	19	9	7	457	634
1993 Dec 4-6	19	27	20	17	8	9	498	639
1992 Dec 12-18	19	24	20	18	10	9	466	605
1991 Dec 12-15	20	24	22	19	7	8	447	617
1990 Nov 29-Dec 2	17	25	23	19	7	9	458	588
1989 Oct 12-15	18	23	25	15	4	15	484	634

Is that more, less, or about the same amount as you spent last Christmas?

 

	More	Less	About the same	No opinion
	%	%	%	%
2000 Nov 13-15	17	18	64	1
1999 Nov 18-21	19	20	61	*
1998 Dec 4-6	19	21	60	*
1994 Dec 2-5	18	20	62	0
1993 Dec 4-6	20	27	53	*
1992 Dec 18-20	22	28	50	*
1991 Dec 12-15	16	33	43	8
1990 Nov 29-Dec 2	15	26	57	2

How likely are you to use the following to do your Christmas shopping -- very likely, somewhat likely, not too likely, or not at all likely? How about ... [RANDOM ORDER]?

A. Mail order catalogues

 

		Very likely	Somewhat likely	Not too likely	Not at all likely	No opinion
2000 Nov 13-15		12%	22	20	46	*
1999 Nov 18-21 ^		17%	28	17	38	*
1998 Dec 4-6 ^		14%	21	15	50	*
1993 Dec 4-6 ^		13%	21	17	49	*
^	WORDING: Catalogues

B. Discount stores

 

	Very likely	Somewhat likely	Not too likely	Not at all likely	No opinion
2000 Nov 13-15	42%	33	12	13	*
1999 Nov 18-21	45%	34	11	10	*
1998 Dec 4-6	48%	32	9	11	*
1993 Dec 4-6	51%	31	9	8	1

C. Department stores

 

	Very likely	Somewhat likely	Not too likely	Not at all likely	No opinion
2000 Nov 13-15	58%	29	6	7	*
1999 Nov 18-21	60%	31	5	4	*
1998 Dec 4-6	60%	27	6	6	1
1993 Dec 4-6	51%	33	7	8	1

D. Specialty stores, such as stores that sell only toys, or clothes, or jewelry, for example

 

	Very likely	Somewhat likely	Not too likely	Not at all likely	No opinion
2000 Nov 13-15	36%	28	16	19	1
1999 Nov 18-21	37%	33	11	19	*
1998 Dec 4-6	37%	28	14	20	1
1993 Dec 4-6	24%	29	21	25	1

E. Online shopping on the Internet

 

	Very likely	Somewhat likely	Not too likely	Not at all likely	No opinion
2000 Nov 13-15	9%	12	14	65	*
1999 Nov 18-21	8%	11	14	67	*
1998 Dec 4-6	4%	6	7	82	1

 

 

VERY/SOMEWHAT LIKELY SUMMARY TABLE

 

 

	Very likely	Somewhat likely	Very/ Somewhat likely
2000 Nov 13-15	%	%	%
Department stores	58	29	87
Discount stores	42	33	75
Specialty stores	36	28	64
Mail order catalogues	12	22	34
Online shopping on the Internet	9	12	21

 

*Less than 0.5%