Going in to the BlackFriday-led shopping season, Discover’s U.S. SpendingMonitorconsumer survey was showing some positive signs–or at least lessbad signs than last year.
Last November, 65 percent of consumers said they weregoing to spend less on holiday gifts than they did the year before.This year only 55 percent feel that way. Of the 10 percent whoshifted, the majority said they would spend about the same, but onein four said they would be spending more this year.
On the positive expectationsfront, there were some modest gains in outlook over lastyear:
One in five expected to spend more on holiday gifts thanthe previous year. This year, only 10 percent are looking to spendmore in 2010 than they did in 2009. Nonetheless, that’s up from 7percent the year before and represents the first time since 2007that the numbers have reached double digits.
Post Black Friday, merchantheadlines in the news appear to indicate a robust start to theshopping season. We will have to see if consumers exceed theirexpected spending, or if they were just getting an early start totheir shopping and taking advantage of the Black Fridaysales.
See the original press release at:http://investorrelations.discoverfinancial.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=204177&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=1499629
