Easter Stats Are More Than Numbers

Easter is an interesting holiday for stores like ours.
If Easter is in March, it is usually a slow holiday and does not attract as much retail attention as Easter in April.  The further into April, the more time people have to plan and think about how they are going to commemorate the holiday.
Just today I received some statistics from the National Retail Federation concerning projections for Easter.
80% of Americans are expected to spend $140.62 each on Easter purchases, as compared to 2014 Easter purchases of $137.46 each.
Frankly I can't understand that number since a new pair of shoes for Easter might very well be at least 1/2 of the $140.62!!  or take the whole amount!!
The total projection for Easter purchases is projected to be $16.4 billion.  Holy cow! that sounds like a really big number, until you consider that it takes into account sprucing up wardrobes, buying those ever important Easter shoes, food, candy, decorations, etc.
It is projected that people will spend more this year on food.  85.7% will purchase more food for a total of $5.3 billion.  So we are talking Easter dinner and perhaps other Easter meals.
$2.2 billion will be spent on jelly beans, chocolate Peeps and other festive candy.  Sweet Tooth has all of that!
$2.4 billion will be spent on gifts and $1.1 billion on flowers.  $998 million will go to decorations and $695 million to greeting cards.
So there you have the story, as it affects retailers.  58.6% of shoppers will make purchases in discount stores.  Technology will impact purchases as well as 13.5% of shoppers will make purchases on their Smart Phones.
I've always noticed that some parents don't want to bring their kids into our store right before Easter.  It seems that those kids who still believe in the Easter bunny might begin to wonder if the candy they get in their Easter baskets looks a whole lot like what they saw at Sweet Tooth.
Like Gilda Radner used to say:  "It's always something!"