Holiday Shopping Forecast: Spending Up?
Wall Street may be seeing more ups and downs as we approach the Holiday Season, but there are growing signs upcoming holiday shopping may improved spending, especially at the retail level.
Consumers may be getting ready to spend more this holiday season than last year, according to the latest Gallup survey.
Consumers say they planning to hit the Malls again and that's why Gallup is now forecasting Holiday Spending to improve by at least 2% over 2009. It now believes Retail Spending could possibly pick up by about 4% nationwide. Individual spending is also expected to improve to an estimated $714 per person.
And that's beats last years' average by about $76 according to Gallup's consumer survey.
Around South Florida, most shoppers are still worried about over-spending over the holidays.
Doral Shopper Aldrin Compos says "Probably I'll spend a little less, I want to be careful about what I spend certainly."
But Judith Santana of Doral knows it's hard to budget over the Holidays and adds " Things get more expensive, so you tend to spend more."
While about 1/2 the shoppers surveyed say they plan on spending about the same as last year, only about 12% say they plan on boosting spending this holiday.
And according to Gallup, 34% are hoping to cut back.
Still Florida's retailers believe statewide, shoppers will go back to the check- out counters in greater numbers than other parts of the country, despite the state's continuing unemployment problems.
Retailers aren't wasting anytime trying to boost sales.
Some major retailers including Best Buy and Walmart are already promoting deep discounts and "Black Friday" pricing to jump-start holiday shopping.
And the Florida Retail Federation says about 40% of the state's residents started their holiday shopping *Before* Halloween.
So we are definitely in the start of the Holiday Shopping Blitz right now. For more Information on the Gallup Spending Survey:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/144506/November-Christmas-Spending-Estimate-Outpaces-2009.aspx
