Tag Archives: time

It’s going to be a bipolar holiday sales season, reports Bloomberg Businessweek . Industry analysts, looked to to predict the shopping habits and spending stats at this time of year, predict a mix of spending trends this holiday season. Luxury retailers will experience a boom of sales at the register, while mass-market retailers will barely make bottom line profits like they used to in past years. The spending forecast highlights a growing gap between American consumers, with luxury consumers–high-income Americans who held on to their jobs and reduced debt over the recession–charging forward with full-price luxury goods to the registers, and frugal-minded Americans–middle-class Americans who are anxious about job security and tightening their household budgets–looking for bargains and steals at the mall. According to Businessweek, respondents with household incomes of less than $50,000 said they’d spend an average of $490.33 this season, down 1.2 percent from last year. Those with household incomes of $50,000 or more said they’d spend 2.9 percent more than in 2009, an average of $942.12.