Shop 'til You Drop?

The authors of Affluenza begin Chapter 1 with the (fictional) story of little Jason Jones, his Christmas list, and his day-after-Thanksgiving trip to the mall. Since we're only a month removed from Christmas, I thought holiday shopping would be a good place for us to start our discussions as well.

According to this January 14, 2010, press release from the National Retail Federation, despite a projected decline, national holiday sales actually rose 1.1% over 2008. Some interesting trends (from a December 16, 2009, NRF press release - which includes a link to the raw survey data and six sample charts and graphs):

- On average, shoppers had gotten a little less of their holiday shopping done than on the same date in 2008.

- The number of people who planned to do some of their remaining shopping online actually dropped a little from 2008 - but was still third-highest, behind only department stores and discount stores.

- More people bought their holiday gifts with cash or debit/check cards, and fewer used credit cards. In fact, the percentage of shoppers using credit was at its lowest level since 2005.

- Broken down regionally, Midwestern shoppers were the most likely to use cash (very financially responsible, Midwesterners!), the most likely to write checks (get with the times, Midwesterners!), and - by far - the least likely to use an American Express card (I'm not sure what that's about...).

Locally, the story seemed about the same. According to a short article from the 1/14/10 edition of the Kansas City Star (I found it by searching "holiday sales" in our NewsBank database), the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City "noted that overall holiday consumer spending in the region was 'little changed' from a year ago, but sales in some areas were 'extremely hampered' by the bad year-end weather." 

The 'Beige Book' study cited in the article is actually called the Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District (whew - I can see why they go with Beige Book instead!) and is published by the Fed eight times a year. The 1/13/10 study is online here - make sure you click "Kansas City" to get to details on our region. I found it by first going to our "Federal Reserve Today" weblink under Business and Technology. Other sites of interest you can find there include the Kansas City Business Journal, Standard and Poor's (of S&P 500 fame), and Google Finance.

Personally, I can tell you the holidays were quite a bit different for us this year. My wife and her mom still went out shopping the morning after Thanksgiving, but barely bought anything (I think they actually do it for the sport - crazy people!). Instead of exchanging gifts, this year our immediate family agreed to put our shopping dollars toward a family trip. So instead of getting dragged to the mall to go shopping against my will - and then running out by myself the day or two before Christmas to desperately pick through whatever's left on the shelves - I had a relatively relaxing December visiting with friends and family who'd come back to town. 

Even our Christmas Eve was different - instead of the usual dinner and church service with the in-laws, I was snowed in trying to save our family trip from cancelled flights (don't worry - we eventually got it all figured out). But, looking back, I have a pretty strange feeling: as a combination of the weather and the lack of shopping, it just didn't feel like Christmas to me this year. Is shopping such a big part of the holidays that it's just not really the holidays without it?

How about you? How does affluenza tie in with your holiday traditions? And have any of your shopping or celebrating habits changed as a result of the lousy economy?