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Holiday Shoppers Procrastinating This Year

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By MICHAEL SASSO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 16, 2008

TAMPA - If you're moving slowly on your shopping this holiday season, you're not alone. Most people are less than half-finished, a new survey says.

The average person had completed only 47.1 percent of his holiday shopping by the second week of December. By the same point last year, the average person had completed 52.6 percent, according to a survey released today by the National Retail Federation.

While people may just be procrastinating, the shopping season also had a late start this year. Because Thanksgiving fell so late, on Nov. 27, shoppers had fewer days between Black Friday – the traditional start of the holiday shopping season – and Christmas. Only 8 percent of survey respondents said they had finished their shopping by the second week of this month, the survey said.

More than 41 million people had not started their shopping by that point, with the biggest procrastinators being men and people 35 to 44 years old. About 21 percent of each of those demographics said they had not started their shopping, the survey said.

Among other trends reported in the survey, some people are shying away from buying gift cards this year. About 24 percent of shoppers said they have purchased gift cards so far this year, down from the 30 percent of shoppers who said they done so by this time last year, the survey said.

The shopper survey was conducted for NRF by BIGresearch from Dec. 2 to Dec. 9. The survey polled 8,860 consumers and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percent.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.

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