A new survey finds that many people say they’ll cut down on holiday shopping this year because of high-energy costs. But even the researchers who conducted the survey are skeptical that will actually happen. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:
Transcript
A new survey finds that many people say they’ll cut down on holiday
shopping this year because of high-energy costs, but even the researchers
who conducted the survey are skeptical that will actually happen. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:
Consumers have told the Credit Union National Association for the past
six years that they planned to spend about the same or less during the
holiday season than they did the year before, but the association’s Chief
Economist Bill Hampel says spending has actually gone up each year.
“We typically go into holiday spending season saying I’m not going to do
what I did last year I’m going to restrain myself and then by end of
December we have this post holiday spending hangover saying whoops
we, our bills have run up we’ve spent more than we planned to.”
Hampel says this year, many people say high gas prices and heating bills
will curb their holiday spending. Still, Hampel says the economy would
benefit more if people spend what they can afford on gifts and cut down
on energy use. He says what we spend on presents goes into the
domestic economy, while energy spending typically goes to foreign
suppliers.
For the GLRC, I’m Tracy Samilton.