Santa's Helpers

Santa's Helpers Deck the halls, and bust out the family stockings; it's time for the annual holiday shopping spree. Shoppers are expected to spend $749.51 on average each this year for gifts, decorations, food, and other items to celebrate the season. But a closer look shows some discrepancies between how men and women will spend their money, when they will start their shopping, and where they will do it. We provide a side-by-side comparison of the average male and female holiday shoppers in the United States. How do you measure up? Jotal: $775-78 How Much They Spend Jotal: $724.23 $416.32 Gifts for family Gifts for family $427.07 $89.13 Gifts for friends Gifts for friends $61.92 $30.37 Gifts for co-workers Gifts for co-workers $16.65 $31.43| Other Gifts Other Gifts $25.02 $53-37 $46.92 $21.97 $17.26 Decorations Flowers $31.21 $26.24 $97.64 $103.70 Greeting cards and Postage Candy and food 60.7% Discount Stores Discount Stores |69.7% 58.9% Department Stores Department Stores 56.8% 32.4% Clothing & Accessory Store Clothing & Accessory Store 39.8% | 38.7% Electronic Store Electronic Store 25.4% 16.4% Other Specialty Store Other Specialty Store 16.9% 13,4% Craft or Fabric Store Craft or Fabric Store 22% 18.8% | Drug Store Drug Store 24.6% 48.1% | Grocery Store/Supermarket Grocery Store/Supermarket| 55.2% 51.7% Online Online 51.8% | 12.1% Catalog Catalog | 15.7% | 9.6% Thrift Store/Resale Shop Thrift Store/Resale Shop |14% 4.1% Other Other 4.8% Where People Plan To Purchase Jiems This Year When they start shopping? Female shoppers, on average, start their shopping earlier in the year than men. 9.3% Before September 15% 6.4% September 7.6% 20.2% O • October • 23.8% 40.1% • November • 37.9% 19.3% First two weeks of December 13.2% 4.6% Last two weeks of December 2.5% mintcom SOURCE: BIGINSIGHT" MONTHLY CONSUMER SURVEY, OCT-12 CK