Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Easter spending to hit $16.8 billion

The National Retail Federation is forecasting that Americans will spend nearly $17 billion this Easter holiday, led by sales of spring apparel, food and - what else? - candy.

The result of the NRF's survey is welcome news for retailers, as it's predicting a rise of about $2 billion from last year's Easter spending.

Average consumer spending is predicted to be $145.28, the first year above pre-recession levels. Clothing and accessory spending is forecast to total $3 billion, candy spending is forecast to be $2 billion, and spending on food for Easter meals is forecast to be a whopping $5.1 billion.

There are more details in the NRF report linked to above, but the basic takeaway seems to be this: High gas prices aren't holding back consumers, who are ready to spend more as the economy slowly improves.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Easter Bunny sure has gotten expensive.

Garth Vader said...

Glad to see the Observer capture the true meaning of Easter: Marshmallow Peeps.

Zero mention of *esus I see (I partially blacked the name out so you don't have to).