Share this on

Procrastination Nation

By Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 12/17/2009 9:16:00 AM

Three surveys find most Americans are still doing their Christmas shopping.

A survey, commissioned by The Western Union Company, and conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, found in a consumer survey conducted this past weekend that 73 percent Americans have not yet finished their holiday shopping, with 10 percent of consumers saying they are waiting for end of season sales, 18 percent saying they always wait until the last minute to shop, 25 percent reporting not having time to devote to shopping until now

Consumer Reports’ latest Holiday Shopping Poll found that 40 percent of adults said that they have yet to hit the stores for gifts as of December 6. Only 12 percent have finished their holiday shopping and 30 percent do not anticipate finishing until December 23 or later. Some 13 percent will not finish until December 24.

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the average person had completed 46.7 percent of their holiday shopping by the second week of December, less than the 47.1 percent completed by this time last year. This is the lowest percentage since 2004, when the average person had completed 46.3 percent of their shopping by the same period. According to the survey, nearly 42 million people (19.1 percent) had not even started their shopping as of late last week, while 8.6 percent of shoppers have completely finished. Adults over 65 years old have completed the most shopping (50 percent) while adults 45-54 year olds have completed the least (44.1 percent). Only 11.9 percent of shoppers say they will buy their last gift on December 24. Instead, 35 percent plan to finish their list by Saturday, December 19.

Share this on

Talkback

We would love your feedback!

More shoppers sought toys over Black Friday weekend

Nov 30, 2009

UPDATE: Holiday Forecasts For All

Oct 29, 2009

Holiday Shopping By the Numbers

Nov 25, 2009

More Consumers Plan to Shop on Black Friday

Nov 5, 2009

Mother’s Day Spending to be Down

Apr 16, 2009

Also by this author

»MORE

Featured Company

FurnitureCore.com

FurnitureCore.com is a dynamic web application aimed at the furniture industry. Retailers and manufacturers alike will find our deep reserve of tools to be exactly what their furniture business needs.www.furniturecore.com... more