Plasitc Easter eggs are displayed in a store in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Easter is a little over a week away, and as Americans make plans for the break, the National Retail Federation thinks that people will pack stores to stock up on supplies for the holiday season.
The retail trade association and Prosper Insights & Analytics released its annual survey revealing that Easter spending is expected to reach $177 per person, the third highest per-person spending in the survey’s history, after $192.01 last year and $179.70 in 2021.
Overall spending for Easter this year is also predicted to climb to a staggering $22.4 billion, the second highest amount in the survey’s history, after 2023’s record-setting $24 billion when the holiday fell nine days later in the year.
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Results from the survey show the top places to buy Easter gifts include discount stores (53%), followed by department stores (40%), online (33%), local/small businesses (22%) and specialty stores (20%).
Consumers polled tell the NRF they feel inspired to shop for Easter-related items because it’s tradition (64%), a social activity with family or friends (32%), or because of sales and promotions (29%).
Half of people (55%) not celebrating Easter still plan to take advantage of holiday-related sales and expect to spend an average of $20.52 per person, or $0.62 billion in total, on these goods.
To gather data for the survey, the NRF polled 8,372 U.S. adult consumers between March 1 - 6.
This story was reported from Washington, D.C.