Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week we come together right here, we talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. It is so good to be back with
you again this week. I'm Nicole Davis. All right, be
honest with me here, have you done your shopping yet?
I know a lot of people like to start really early.
I am not one of them. I am one of
(00:29):
those holiday shoppers who kind of pushes the limit a
little bit. But if you are somebody who is more
efficient and well planned than I am, of course it's
time to get out there. Lots of sales are popping up.
The thing is, though, of course, we've kind of had
a hard year. Inflation's been high and many of us
are struggling just to pay the bills. How willing are
we right now to part with our cash to give
presents out to friends and family. Well, every year Deloitte,
(00:52):
which is based in Boston, does a survey on this,
and this time around we have Anthony Jardam here. He
is going to break all this down, do all the
numbers for us. Talk about this, Anthony, It's great to
have you here on the show. So tell me, I mean,
are people worried about the inflation side.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Absolutely. We did think that price and cost was going
to be top of mind for our consumers and about
you know, seventy percent of the ones that we pulled
nationally mentioned that they expected prices would be higher this
holiday season.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
What did you find when it comes to people's willingness
to spend?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Absolutely so. In Boston, despite the increased confidence in the economy,
the shoppers plan to spend relatively the same amount as
last year, which is about nine and fifty five dollars
this season, and that's up about four percent year over year,
but it's about which is considered flat as it's within
(01:48):
the margin of error for this survey.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Okay, wow, So that's good news that people are willing
to shell out and you know they're expecting higher prices still,
So what does this mean when it comes to their confidence?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Confidence? Is about nine percent increase in a rosier economical
outlook this year, and which is good. I think a
lot of the executives that we spoke to about eighty
percent of them mentioned that they expect prices both in
store and online to yield more higher results compared to
(02:19):
last year as well too.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And that's really good for the business economy considering that
many businesses are still kind of trying to come back post.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
COVID one hundred percent. Yeah, A couple of the other
things that we found were, you know, customers this year
are really seeking quality, value, and variety. Those are the
three most important factors as they look to stretch their
wallets and being festive at the same time.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
So really it's more investing in like stuff that you
can really hold on to for a while as opposed
to just kind of, you know, blowing it on a
few basic cheap things.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, and kind of drilling down a little bit more.
What's kind of interesting from a category perspective. Obviously, clothing
and a say series is the largest spend category again
this year, but when you're talking about growth for the categories,
food and beverage is actually the highest growth category as
customers lean into more experiences this year compared to maybe
(03:15):
that spend last year or while the pandemic was going on,
folks were really spending a lot on electronics and our
furniture and home decor. This year, we're kind of seeing
folks get more excited about going out and either going
to events or hosting different experiences.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Wow. So you mentioned that people are willing to spend
about two grand this holiday season. When it comes to
gifts specifically, what are you are breaking it down between,
like you know, food and stuff for the holidays as
opposed to gifts. What are you seeing when it comes
to that split there?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, So for gifts this year, where the majority of spend,
like I mentioned in clothing and accessory, we're seeing things
like gift cards be the the category that has seen
the biggest decrease, which is interesting. That was a popular
category last year, and I think that's a little bit
(04:07):
contributed to inflation that you were talking about before, where
maybe the value of fifty dollars gift card this year
doesn't hold the same weight as a card last year.
And then you know, if people are giving that gift
card last year, they probably don't want to get another
one again this year.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
No, there's only so many dunkin gift cards. I guess
you can get in a row before you're like, all right,
we've got to switch it up to something else here.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, you know, in terms of the holiday gatherings, we
talked a little bit about the experiences I think you know,
out of the one out of every four consumer in
Boston that we surveyed plan on hosting a holiday a gathering,
and that would include maybe an average of twelve guests
and spending around two hundred and eighty dollars for those
(04:54):
types of events too.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Oh boy, that's not exactly cheap. So how are people
trying to work around like offsetting those calls?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah? I think one of the biggest things when we
talked about quality, value, and variety is the you know,
balance between seeking value and remaining loyal to your brands.
Two thirds of the folks that we surveyed are willing
to switch brands, and about half of them are willing
to switch retailers. So we're seeing customers go out and
(05:21):
shop more in terms of looking for values and promotions
and deals. It's interesting how they're doing that too. They're
leveraging things like AI to actually go and seek where
those promotions and deals may be, and they're willing to
like shop around and go to different types of retailers.
The other interesting thing is private label brands we predict
(05:44):
will grow faster than national brands this year as well.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Wow, why do you think that is?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
They are looking for quality, and we're seeing a lot
of retailers actually, you know, invest in private label over
national brands, and those are ones in which the customers
are gravitating towards.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So then the big question, of course, is when do
you start your shopping? Because there are some people that
I know that start in July, and you know, bless
them for that, but that's not me. When are most
people planning on starting this whole venture?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
About fifty five percent of the shoppers that we surveyed
plan to spend about half of their budget the last
two weeks of November, the first two weeks of December,
and retailers have been tempted to plan for Boston consumers
to plan to shop during October promotional events too, so
(06:36):
we're kind of seeing that shift earlier and earlier. That's
up twenty one percent twenty twenty three. About three quarters
or seventy five percent of those shoppers that we surveyed
planned to shop during Thanksgiving Week to take advantage of
those deep discounts versus fifty nine percent and twenty twenty three.
I think of all the advents Black Friday, Cyber Monday,
(06:59):
Thanksgiving week shoppers, those are that's where you're going to
see the most participation from Boston shoppers.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
And what kind of shoppers are we talking about here?
Are we talking about like boomers heading out to the
malls or younger peoples just saying staying at home and
shopping online. What age group is looking more toward doing
the Black Friday shopping?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, I think when you're looking at the different demographics
in terms of age, when we think of things like
self gifting, we see about fifty four percent of gen
z or is saying that they will self gift as
compared to thirteen percent of baby boomers. So self gifting
(07:38):
seems to be higher among local younger local shoppers. So
like one in five of those are likely to self
gift in Boston and they plan to buy like a
luxury product as a gift for themselves. The younger shoppers
in Boston are embracing the smartphone phone. Almost sixty one
percent of millennials and fifty two percent of gen z
(07:59):
or that we surveyed in the Boston area plan a
shop on their smartphones this year.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ news Radio on iHeartRadio