Did you spend less this Christmas?
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British retailers have suffered their worst Christmas in 10 years. Were you cautious with your spending over the festive season?
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In WASHINGTON story headlined, &quot;US consumer spending softened in November,&quot; please read in the fifth graph... meaning that Americans were setting aside 0.3 cent out of each dollar... instead of... setting aside 3 cents out of each dollar.
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Comment is free: Mary Riddell: There is much hand-wringing over consumerism at Christmas. But poverty remains the real enemy
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Business & money: Households will spend an average of nearly Â£200 on supermarket food in Christmas week
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As post-Christmas retail results began trickling in yesterday, this much became clear about the 2004 holiday shopping season: Consumers procrastinated; they gobbled up gift cards; they defected, in greater numbers, from stores to the Web; and, overall, they appeared to spend more this year than last.
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Almost a third of Americans plan to  spend less on the holidays this year, mainly because they need  to use their money for daily expenses, according to a survey  released on Tuesday.
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US consumers kept a closer eye on their wallets as they moved into the holiday shopping season, boosting their spending by a modest 0.2 per cent in November.
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Consumers, battered by harsh economic crosswinds, spent less in December than at any time in the past 15 months while applications for unemployment benefits soared last week, two more signs the economy is weakening.
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Your added expense isn't worth the cost.
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hoAs the holiday season wound down, U.S. residents kept on shopping significantly more than they did in 2006, particularly on the day after Christmas, but they also reported being less satisfied with e-tailers, according to a pair of studies.Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 27 -- the first 57 days of the holiday season -- U.S. shoppers spent almost $28 billion in online retail purchases, up 19 percent compared with the same period in 2006, according to comScore.Shoppers spent $545 million on Dec. 26, more than doubling the spending on that day in 2006, as they took advantage of late-season offers and discounts, according to comScore.Still, it looks like online spending growth for the 2007 holiday season will fail to meet comScore&#39;s 20 percent forecast, and fall way below the 26 percent growth registered during this period in 2006.comScore chalks up the smaller-than-expected growth to several factors, including warm weather in early November and various economic challenges this year, including higher gas prices, the real estate crunch, and a &quot;jittery&quot; stock market, the company said Sunday.Another important metric that dropped this holiday season compared with 2006&#39;s was customer satisfaction, according to ForeSee Results, a provider of online customer-satisfaction measurement services.A survey of more than 11,000 shoppers revealed that, on a 100-point scale, customer satisfaction with the largest 40 e-tailers dropped, in aggregate, to 74 points, down 1.3 points from the 2006 holiday season, according to ForeSee. It conducted the survey in conjunction with FGI Research using the methodology of the University of Michigan&#8217;s American Customer Satisfaction Index.Still, the spending growth in online shopping this holiday season, even at 19 percent, would greatly outpace the growth of overall U.S. retail holiday spending, forecast at 4 percent by the National Retail Federation.That 4 percent growth rate -- which would put 2007 holiday season retail spending in the United States at almost $475 billion -- would fall below the 10-year average of 4.8 percent and be the slowest since 2002, according to the National Retail Federation.
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Consumersâ attitudes on the economy in the run-up to Christmas made an unexpected jump as of the end of December, according to a survey released Thursday.
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Figures show Christmas credit card spending fell, as debit card use increased.
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Christmas sales in Britain appear set this year for another bonanza, but fewer retailers are likely to share in it amid signs consumer spending is wavering, a study said.
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How about adding some tax breaks to your Christmas shopping list? Though there are only a few weeks left in the year, there may still be time for tax-saving maneuvers if, for example, you buy a new home furnace, spring for a hybrid car, or get new investments to replace battered ones.
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The average American consumer will spend $702.03 this holiday season, favoring DVDs over jewelry, discount chains over department stores and low prices over customer service, according to a survey sponsored by the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group.
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With less than two weeks until Christmas, consumers don&#39;t seem to be in a big rush to finish their holiday shopping, evidence from two groups that track sales confirmed on Tuesday.
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Some Coachella Valley residents will wake up to fewer Christmas presents than they had planned on today. Family members and friends across the country may have the same experience.