Posted on: Sunday, December 3, 2006
Lots of Gen-Yers like to put selves at top of holiday shopping list
Compiled by John MacIntyre
When it comes to shopping for the holidays, percentage of 18- to 34-year-olds — known as Generation Y — who are putting one name at the top of their list — their own, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Gap Inc.: 32
Percentage of Generation-Yers who say they enjoy buying gifts for their parents: 14
TOO MANY HOUSEGUESTS
Percentage of U.S. adults who say they feel like hotel employees when hosting guests for the holidays, according to a survey by hotels.com: 81
Average value per night that U.S. adults believe their "hotel-like" guest accommodations at home are worth: $130
SEASONAL TRYOUTS
Percentage of U.S. hiring managers who say they are recruiting for holiday positions this year, according to a study conducted by http://CareerBuilder.com: 23
Percentage of U.S. hiring managers who expect to pay their seasonal employees more than last year: 24
Percentage of U.S. hiring managers making holiday hires who say they will treat holiday employment as an "extended job interview" and offer permanent positions to some seasonal employees: 86
Percentage of U.S. hiring managers who rank employee refusal to work certain hours as the "biggest turnoff" when recruiting for holiday positions: 28
CARDS BY THE YARD
Rank of the popularity of Christmas cards compared to all other greeting cards, according to the Greeting Card Association: 1
Projected number of Christmas cards that will be purchased in the United States this year: 2 billion
THE RE-GIFTING CRAZE
Percentage of Americans who admit to re-gifting and who plan to re-gift in the future, according to a survey conducted by Tassimo Hot Beverage System and Harris Interactive: 50
Of those who have re-gifted, percentage who have done so more than one time: 93
Percentage of those who have re-gifted who said that to the best of their knowledge, they have never been caught re-gifting: 90
ONLINE SALES RISING
Total value of expected online retail sales in the 2006 holiday season, according to a study conducted by Forrester Research: $27 billion
Percentage increase over the total amount spent last year: 23
THE POSTMAN GROANS
Number of letters, packages and cards delivered by the Postal Service between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year, according to the Postal Service: 20 billion
Approximate number of packages delivered by the Postal Service every day last year between Thanksgiving and Christmas: 1 million
Where's mine?
Percentage of wealthy philanthropists who said that "meeting critical needs" is an important motivator when making charitable donations, according to "The Bank of America High Net-Worth Philanthropy Study," conducted by The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University: 86.3
Percentage of respondents who cited "giving back to society" as an important motivator: 82.6
Percentage who said "feeling that those who have more should give to those with less": 81.5
Percentage who cited a desire to "limit the funds available to my heirs": 8
CHOCO-HOLIDAYS
Estimated percentage of America's 2005 gourmet chocolate sales that were accounted for by the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and Cupid, according to Gourmet Chocolate in the United States, a new report from market research publisher Packaged Facts, a division of http://MarketResearch.com: 25
Estimated value of seasonal sales by 2010: $1.8 billion
HIGH-VALUE GIFT CARDS
Number of gift cards the average shopper purchased last holiday season, according to a survey by BIGResearch: 2
Amount spent on gift cards per average shopper: $135.28
IDLE THOUGHT
"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from."
— Andrew Tannenbaum, computer science professor
