Men spend less time, cash holiday shopping

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 27, 2000

While it's no real news flash that the majority of females like holiday spending better than their male counterparts, a survey analyzing the spending habits of both sexes may surprise you.

Officials from General Growth Properties Inc., owner of the Chapel Hills Mall, have wrapped up their first holiday survey, and found a few similarities between male and female shoppers.

Allison Towe, marketing director at Chapel Hills, said she was surprised to find that the average man and woman have a similar Christmas budget: Men spend an average of $785, and women spend about $825.

Other similarities included an equal affection for money, compact discs and books.

The survey shows that men Christmas shop just as much as women do, but tend to shop much later than the ladies do. Seventeen percent of both genders plan on doing their shopping in early to mid- December, and 10 percent will do their shopping the week before Christmas.

That's where the similarities stopped, for the most part.

The survey shows that 40 percent of men prefer to shop at the last minute and 20 percent of those put off shopping until the last week.

Conversely, women - especially ages 45 and older - likely Christmas shop all year long, and 16 percent of the respondents reported Christmas shopping all year long.

Though men don't shop as early as women, that doesn't mean they're finding corny gifts for their significant others.

According to the survey, men spent about half of their budgets on jewelry. When women were asked what kind of jewelry item they'd like to get as a gift, the overwhelming response was diamond earrings.

Regardless of the similarities, some spending stereotypes still hold true: men still want tools most, while women prefer clothes.

- Sara Nesbitt; The Gazette