Early Holiday Spending Stats Lower

Perhaps bolstered by signs of an economic recovery, analysts who had been expecting strong pre-holiday consumer sales figures were disappointed to see a sharp decline in spending this year. Gallup reports that Black Friday numbers were considered fair, but that subsequent spending has not been as strong as the last three years based on American self-reported spending. Experts say the decreased sales could be linked to Cyber Monday deals and trepidation about the looming fiscal cliff and what it may means for the housing market as well as the broader economy. For more on this continue reading the following article from Iacono Research. 

The folks at Gallup threw a cat amongst the pigeons today with the release of this survey on how many American consumers opened their wallets last week and how big their December credit card bills might be. (Does anyone pay cash anymore?) Though spending was higher this year during the week before Thanksgiving, self-reported spending during the holiday week fell from averages of $79 per day in 2010 and $83 per day last year to just $67 per day last week, not even besting the level of $69 in 2009.



Such issues as Thanksgiving coming relatively early this year and growing “Cyber-Monday” sales could be behind the sharp decline and, of course, there’s lots of time between now and Christmas for Americans to spend more, though, with the “fiscal cliff” looming and financial markets shaky, that is by no means assured.

This blog post was republished with permission from Iacono Research.