Millions of UK shoppers to rein in Christmas spending on final day, data finds

 

Millions of UK shoppers to rein in Christmas spending on final day, data finds

 

ONS survey finds 79% of adults plan to buy fewer presents and 73% say gifts will be cheaper than last year

 

Phillip Inman

@phillipinman

Fri 23 Dec 2022 13.07 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/23/millions-uk-shoppers-rein-in-christmas-spending-final-day-data-finds

 

Millions of shoppers are expected to rein in their spending as they head into the last day of Christmas shopping, according to official data that shows eight in 10 adults plan to buy fewer presents.

 

Shoppers also plan to buy less expensive gifts to cope with a cost of living crisis in which soaring prices are eating into the spending power of the average household at a record rate.

 

The Office for National Statistics said 79% of adults planned to cut back on the number of presents and 73% said the gifts they bought would be cheaper than last year.

 

Expensive foodie treats and eating out will get the cold shoulder in many households to release cash for basic items such as gas central heating.

 

Sixty-two per cent of respondents said they would buy less expensive food and drink, while 58% were going to turn their backs on takeaway or restaurant food. Cutting back on the amount of booze and food for Christmas was the priority for 56% of adults.

 

The figures chime with high street footfall figures and a steady decline in online shopping that has forced many retailers to bring forward the traditional January sales.

 

Discounts are already widespread as poor weather and strikes add to the problems faced by the majority of households whose wages have fallen behind inflation.

 

The headline rate of consumer price inflation dropped slightly to 10.7% in November from 11.1% in the previous month, but remains well ahead of most pay deals, which average 4%, and the annual increase in total earnings, which averages 6%.

 

Just over nine in 10 (92%) adults reported their cost of living had increased compared with a year ago when inflation was 5.4%. Disturbingly for the government, 76% of respondents reported an increase in their cost of living compared with one month ago.

 

Earlier this week the shopper tracking agency Springboard said the number of visitors to UK high streets was down by a fifth on pre-pandemic levels last week, and almost 1% down on last year when the Omicron variant and some government restrictions led to a very quiet end of the year.

 

Pubs, restaurants and bars experienced a 50% fall in takings this weekend, despite the men’s football World Cup final, according to the Night Time Industries Association, on what should have been one of the busiest weekends of the year.

 

The cold weather last week forced many people to abandon their frugal use of home heating, leading to a decline in the number of people telling the ONS they used less gas or electricity in their home from 63% at the beginning of the month to 56% last week.

 

Nevertheless, the number of respondents who said they were occasionally, hardly ever, or never able to keep comfortably warm in their home in the past two weeks edged up from 23% earlier this month to 24%.