TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Holiday Shoppers PROCRASTINATING THIS YEAR

ADVERTISEMENT

By MICHAEL SASSO

msasso@tampatrib.com

Published: December 17, 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 Tuesday 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 deep into the month, 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. The biggest procrastinators: men and those 35 to 44. About 21 percent of the people in each of these demographics said they had not started their shopping.

Another trend reported in the survey is that people are shying away from gift cards this year. About 24 percent of shoppers said they have purchased gift cards this year, down from 30 percent this time last year.

The shopper survey was conducted for the retail federation by BIGresearch from Dec. 2 to Dec. 9. The survey polled 8,860 people and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT