By Ron Kurtz
Expert Author
Where Gifts Are Purchased Varies by Type of Recipient
About 90% of the married respondents to a recent survey of the affluent plan to give a December holiday gift to their spouse, and the most frequent sources of the gifts will be traditional department stores (62%) and specialty retail stores (57%).
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Gift cards or money equivalents will be given by about 20% of the spouses.
About one in two said they have children under 18 to whom they will give gifts. Specialty retail stores (58%) will be the most frequent source of the gifts. Traditional department stores (55%) will be a close second, and the internet and discount department stores were essentially tied (at almost 50%). Gift cards or money equivalents will be given, about equally, by about 31% of the survey respondents.
Almost six in ten said they have children 18 and over to whom they will give gifts. Traditional department stores (57%), specialty retail stores (43%), and discount department stores (35%) will be the most frequent sources of the gifts. Gift cards or money equivalents will be given, mostly as cash or checks, by about 69% of the survey respondents.
About 80% of the respondents plan to give gifts to other relatives, and 62% will give gifts to friends. For both types of recipients, traditional department stores and specialty retail stores were named the first and second most frequent sources of gifts. For relatives, the internet was named third (39%) and for friends discount department stores were named third (37%). For both types of recipients, gift cards or certificates will be given to about by about 25% of the survey respondents.
For each type of recipient, catalogues were named as a source of gifts by about one in four of the respondents.
These results were obtained from the recently completed Fall 2005 "Affluent Market Tracking Study #8" by The American Affluence Research Center. A continuing series of twice-yearly surveys, these studies track the 12- month economic outlook and spending plans of the wealthiest 10% of Americans, the 11 million households representing about half of all consumer income and spending and a third of the total US economy. These are the consumers who have helped the more upscale retailers to out perform others in recent years.
The survey participants were asked to rank their first, second, and third most important sources of gifts based on the total dollar value of gifts purchased.
Highlights of the national survey of 448 men and women in the wealthiest 10% of U. S. households can be found on the AARC website, www.affluenceresearch.org. The survey participants have an average income of $308, 000 and an average net worth of $2. 7 million. The survey has a 5% margin of error at the 95% confidence level.
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