Consumers plan to spend more on Christmas this year than they planned to spend at this time one year ago, Gallup said in a recent report.
Not only do American consumers plan to spend 7 percent more this year on Christmas than last – $764 compared with $714 – but they plan to spend more than $100 more than what they estimated at this time of year in both 2008 and 2009, Gallup said.
Gallup surveyed consumers from November 3-6, 2011 and reached the $764 average estimate. Just one month earlier, consumers estimated a $712 spend.
The $50 increase in estimated spend year-over-year could lead to a bump in holiday sales in the neighborhood of 3 to 4 percent, Gallup said, as the estimates recorded by this yearly survey often translate into similar results on the retail sales side.
For example, last year (November 2010), consumers estimated spending 12 percent more than the previous November (2009). These estimations coincided with a 5.2 percent jump in holiday retail sales.
On the flipside, Gallup recorded a huge 29 percent decrease in estimated spending from November 2007 to November 2008. The
| Tags: Consumers Plan, Spend
Posted November 27, 2011 by Hanna Silver under Global Finance

If you dismiss these huge numbers, as many consumers are apt to do, you could be setting yourself up for a huge mess. It is