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Poll: 4 in 10 to spend less on gifts this year
(Credit:
chart holiday spending)
CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.
Four in ten Americans plan to spend less money on gifts this season than they did last year, a newly-released CBS News poll finds.
The survey, taken November 6-10, suggests that few Americans are feeling flush as the economy continues to sputter three years after the 2008 economic crisis: Just nine percent of respondents said they will spend more on gifts this year than they did last year.
About half said they would spend about the same amount.
Among those making less than $50,000 per year, the percentage of Americans planning to spend less this year rises to 47 percent. By contrast, only 31 percent of those making more than $100,000 per year plan to spend less.
Nearly seven in ten Americans plan to do most of their holiday shopping in person as opposed to online; 16 percent plan to do most of their holiday shopping online.
The higher a person's earnings, the more likely they are to plan to shop online. Only 10 percent of those making less than $50,000 per year plan to do most of their shopping online, compared to 19 percent of those making between $50,000 and $100,000 per year; among those making more than $100,000 per year, that figure rises to 33 percent.
This poll was conducted by telephone from November 6-10, 2011 among 1,182 adults nationwide. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
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Brian Montopoli Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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