BOSTON – New Englanders are planning to spend 24 percent more this holiday season compared with last year, according to the 24th annual holiday shopping survey by consulting firm Deloitte LLP.
New England residents said they expect to spend an average of $1,131 this year, up from their projection of $910 last year, The Boston Globe reported.
New Englanders also said they plan to spend less on gifts and more on entertaining and decorating, The Globe said. When it comes to presents, the most popular gifts will be gift cards, clothes, books and tech items.
Nationwide, Deloitte found Americans plan to spend an average of $1,145 on the holidays, up from $987 in 2008. They expect to cut their total spending on gifts to $452 from $532 in 2008 and $569 in 2007.
“It is a comeback, somewhat,” Stacy Janiak, a Deloitte vice chairman and its U.S. retail leader, told Bloomberg News. “There is a replenishment need that’s out there. Everyone pulled back last year and kind of made do with home furnishings and decorations” from previous years.
The survey polled 10,878 consumers from Sept. 24 to Oct. 2 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.
