Millions of American consumers hit the stores this morning to grab for the Black Friday sale items in an attempt to save on holiday spending. Retailers are hopeful that sales will be high but recent polls suggest that financial stress and personal debt will have consumers with a tighter hold on their purse strings this year.
According to an Associated Press poll, 93 percent of Americans indicate that they will spend less or about the same as last year. Credit card debt is playing a large part in how consumers are viewing their holiday spending with half of those responding to the poll saying that they are feeling at least some debt related stress. Showing an increase of 17 percent over a last spring, 22 percent of those polled stated that they were feeling a high amount of debt related stress.
A survey conducted by the National Retail Foundation demonstrates that holiday shoppers intend to buy with cash this year and cut credit card buying by 10.2 percent from last year. Spending cash for gifts means spending less. This seems to be confirmed by a Visa poll of 1000 people that shows that consumers plan on spending 20 percent less on holiday shopping this year.
The goal for American consumers is to get out of debt and stay out of debt. How they will fare this holiday season remains to be seen but surveys say that at least the intention to keep spending in line is strong. Will the lure of holiday festivities be stronger?
