Wednesday, December 6, 2017

The Holiday Season

The Holiday Season
Zach roelandts

Christmas is among us and is coming fast. About 9 out of 10 americans celebrate christmas every year. Christmas isn’t about gifts it's about being with your family, is what your supposed to say, but without gifts it wouldn’t feel like christmas. Christmas is great for our economy because it boosts businesses and increases sales, because people spend all their money buying gifts for their families. A average person in america will spend around 700 dollars on gifts alone every year. That generates around 465 BILLION dollars every year. That’s just on christmas gifts, there are other things that people buy during christmas. Like lights, decorations, eggnog, fruitcakes, and ugly sweaters. Christmas account for half of some companies and shops revenue. If you took away the month of november and december companies would be in a permanent depression.


But because we have christmas, sales have been rising every year by billions. To put this into perspective the U.S. citizens spend a combined amount of 455 billion more dollars on gifts than the total amount of money spent during halloween. Which is a total of 9 billion. But with this increase of demand comes and increase of labor.

During christmas business retailers hired 50 thousand temporary workers for companies all over the U.S. So not only does it bring in money, it increases the economy by creating thousands of jobs.  Retail companies are also hiring people during the holidays. They have created around 140 thousand temporary jobs that are expected to last though january. By the end of this season christmas is expected to create 627 thousand totaljobs.
Looking at these charts, christmas has a huge economic impact on not only america but the whole world. If christmas wasn’t ever a holiday, or became popular. Then a lot of our sales and a good portion of our jobs would have never been there.


Citations
“Economics of Christmas.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Dec. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_Christmas.

Stribling, Richard. “Economic Impact of Holiday Season.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 8 Dec. 2011, www.businessinsider.com/economic-impact-of-holiday-season-2011-12.

Thompson, Derek. “Is Christmas Bad for the Economy?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 7 Dec. 2011, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/is-christmas-bad-for-the-economy/249618/.

Lipka, Michael. “5 Facts about Christmas in America.” Pew Research Center, 21 Dec. 2015, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/21/5-facts-about-christmas-in-america/.

28 comments:

  1. I definitely agree- Christmas is HUGE in sales all over the US, not only in gifts but also in decorations, food, trees, etc. I don't spend $700 on gifts every year (mostly because I don't have the money) but it doesn't surprise me that most adults do. Christmas has always been big for retailers and other major companies, and I would say it's only getting bigger.

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  2. As great as the new employment sounds, the fact that they are only temporary employees who will inevitably be laid-off or even fired does not bode so well for the employment rate. Temporary jobs are nice and all, but without stable employment consumers aren't able to spend their money and keep the cycle of the transfer of goods going.

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  3. Christmas season is definitely a busy time for retailers, but it's interesting to see that they are able to keep up with the demand, and able to produce enough products TO keep up with the demand by hiring workers. It would be interesting to see how much cyclical unemployment there is due to this hiring at this time of year. It was interesting to see just how much the demand and purchasing rates have increased over the years.

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  4. There are many positive externalities that our economy enjoys during the holiday season. Production of goods increases, as producers expect increased consumption, and there is an increase in jobs available during November and December to meet this demand. Online shopping also increases the amount of consumption, as more and more people are going online to buy items they want. I agree that holiday spending has an invaluable spot in our economy, as a large chunk of it increases our GDP, since ⅕ of all retail sales occur in the last 2 months of the year.

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  5. I agree that Christmas has a huge impact on the economy. Many workers are hired temporarily on Christmas, but after Christmas is over many of the temporary workers are fired. The unemployment rate would stay the same. But I do agree that Christmas boosts the economy and also the GDP of the country Having sales during Christmas is a benefit for the business as many people will come and they will buy more goods during Christmas. For example having sales on toys for kids is beneficial as the many people will come and buy many gift for their kids, grand kids, etc.

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  6. Christmas is a hectic economic time as many people feel the need to spend money. Although I am curious to know the trade offs, and negatives to the season. While people spend money, they are losing money. It is a prosperous time for business, but those not working in business or retail may experience no change in economic growth, maybe even a decrease.

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  7. Christmas very well plays a positive role in the economy not only because the sales drop for Black Friday and many consumers are trying to get the best deal possible for gifts, but as you also state with these promotions more jobs are created lowering the unemployment rate for the season creating a more powerful economy with the extra money circulating. This plays a very positive role for the economy and is a very good way to keep the economy growing.

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  8. I agree because personally, I don't shop as much until November and December. The best sales come out that they usually dont ever have, so I buy stuff for myself and also I buy gifts. I can see how the average is $700 because since black friday I've probably spent about $400 at a couple different stores-- and I only work part time, so I can't imagine what some people who make more spend this time of the year. I also noticed the increase of openings around where i live, like at target, weeks before thanksgiving, they had ads everywhere saying they had seasonal openings all in preperation for the holidays, where we go crazy for sales. So youre defiantly right, the impact shoppers have is huge.

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  9. I absolutely agree that the holiday season boosts our nations economy with the amount of sales that we earn from gift purchases. However, I feel bad for those employees that have to work on those significant holidays rather than spending time with their families. I understand that the holiday season gets busy for specific realtors so they need more people to work and help out, but people having to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, as an example, is uncalled for. I think that the amount of sales that stores earn will make up for the money lost when they are closed on those dates. This is just an opportunity cost that companies have to deal with. Closing down for a few days of the year probably won't hurt, and this will allow those people to spend the time with their family in which they truly deserve.

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  10. I agree that Christmas brings in a lot of revenue for businesses and creates many positive externalities. Another area that benefits from the holidays is the transportation sector as many people spend money on flights, gas, etc to travel to see their families. This brings in business to gas stations, airlines, and even groceries stores as well, as many families need to buy food and drinks to bring to family gatherings or a Christmas dinner. In addition, one of the jobs that you mentioned that might become needed over the holidays are people to play Santa, Mrs. Claus, elves in malls, which also brings in more business for the surrounding stores. One negative externality from the holiday season is that some businesses may have to close for Christmas to allow their employees to enjoy the holidays with their family. Additionally, some smaller businesses might experience a lack of workers as many may request off for the holidays. However, I believe that the positive externalities of the holiday season definitely outweighs the negatives because, as you said, Christmas time brings in A LOT of revenue for businesses.

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  11. Christmas is the time to spend money. I had no idea that an adult would spend $700 alone on christmas. While this does help the economy, the jobs that it create would benefit if they were pernamint jobs, this would help lower unemployment and poverty in the US.-Jose

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  12. I agree that a lot of money is spent on Christmas season. I think it's a big deal for America because this shows the spending that we can do annually for a holiday. I think the 465 billion dollars is a little high for me I'm not sure if that's correct but I know we do spend a lot of money at this time. Maybe will all the tax revenue brought in we could help solve little problems amount the country. If your numbers are right that means the government takes in over 24 billion dollars in taxes which is a crazy amount for just one holiday.

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  13. I agree during the holiday season the economy is boosted from increased spending and jobs. I know that right around this time my job is hiring a lot of people for the up coming season, because we get a lot more people coming out to see a movie. Also many of the people who are hired around this time keep their job so they aren't out of work once the holidays end.

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  14. I can relate! I have already spent so much money for Christmas presents and I haven't even gotten half the presents I need this year. Everything in store goes on sail and consumers such as myself buy what they maybe might not of if it wasn't for the sail. I take advantage of the sales for myself too. Overall I definitely spend a lot of money and I am not surprised with the billions spend around Christmas time in the United States.

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  15. Christmas season is a very time for retail sales and it brings in a lot of revenue for businesses. Although, employees that are working at these stores and businesses aren't getting the best advantage with working more hours during holiday season, busier and more chaotic work days, and dealing with stressed out, sometimes rude customers. Do you think online shopping has become a more common, easier way for people to shop? If so, has this impacted businesses and stores?

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  16. I didn't realize how much Christmas really impacted our economy, but it's crazy that it creates 50 thousand temporary jobs. Christmas is a great time of year where families can come together and so does the economy. Without Christmas, businesses would not be getting as much money, and people in need of jobs would not be getting jobs.

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  17. I think it’s very interesting to see how much money is spent on the holidays and how impactful it is to the different businesses. With it creating many more jobs, this would help decrease the poverty level and unemployment by providing more jobs to those who don’t have any. I overall agree with your statement on how its boosts the economy because if you think about it, not only do the stores raise their revenue but so does all traveling aspects (planes, gas etc.) of it as people leave for the holidays. It really is a positive outcome for the economy on each end of the spectrum: increase in money and decrease in unemployment rates.

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  18. I think that Christmas time is very beneficial for the US government. The increase in spending presents a great opportunity for an economic boost. In order to keep this spending going, companies should stick with things like Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, where billions upon billions are shoveled into our Economy. The increase in spending is very beneficial in general. Very well written article, but I think you could've used a few more vocab words in your article, but other than that well done!

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  19. Alison is right, transportation is another big part that benefits the holidays! All of the gas, rental cars, air-fare, and other forms of transportation really tend to add up fast. Which could be a big part to the big price the average adult spends during this season. Don't forget as well, many families choose to go on vacations during this time as well, which brings an even higher price. I love Christmas, and obviously I love celebrating it for it';s true meaning and to be with my family but the presents are always and extra boost. It's just crazy thinking in perspective how much an individual person spends on average. I'm guessing that families with 5+ members spend even more and more. Just wait till we are adults and are spending all of our money on our kids...

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  20. I thought that this topic was very interesting. Because I work part time in retail I can see the effects that you wrote about in your paper at my job every year. Every year at my store the managers talk about how they make more money in the weeks from black friday to christmas than they do in 9 months of the year. They also talk about how they do hire people for specifically the holiday season just to keep up with the increase of traffic flow in the store. Also I thought it was interesting how you said people spend $700 on christmas gifts for other people, and I was wondering if that was an average or the median. If it was an average that number could be skewed due to outliers but if it was the median than that number would be a lot more realistic. Again I thought that this topic was very interesting and everything that you said was true.

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  21. I agree that Christmas helps boost business revenue and without their sales, businesses wouldn't be as successful. Even though these sales in stores help the business sector, it also takes into play that by having all the workers deal with the customers their opportunity cost would be not spending time with their families. Another thing to look at would be that other businesses such as airports will increase in demand, therefore the airports will need to supply more planes in order to make most people happy. Overall there are more positive externalities to Christmas sales and production than negative. A negative externality would be too much chaos during the season which does give a lot of people stress in businesses and in daily life.

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  22. $700 seems a little high for the average american, I really don't feel like the average person spends $700 dollars for Christmas. However, the increased revenue for companies makes perfect since as there are a lot more shoppers during the holiday season. The holidays in general are a great time as unemployment is lowered, people spend a lot of money, and the Christmas cheer is infectious. After Christmas though, depression settles in. Those extra jobs will be lost, people will realize that most of their gifts are useless, etc. Wouldn't it be great if we could extend the christmas cheer all year long?

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  23. Never realized how big of an economic impact Christmas had on the shops and stores. I always knew they brought in revenue but not as much as i thought. I would agree that the average family spends 700 bucks on Christmas stuff. Do you think that spending money varies depending on income of that household or is it the same for most?

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  24. It's crazy how much revenue the holiday season brings in for companies, and you make an interesting point how many stores even hire additional workers during Christmas time. As shopping demand increases, so does demand for labor. I'd be curious to know if as time has gone on, do families now spend more money on Christmas (avg. $700) than they did in the past? Or is the $700 average per family proportional to inflation? Cool topic otherwise! -Kat Van Hulle

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  25. It is crazy how much revenue in stores increases during the holiday season. For the most part I agree with your point stating that the average family spends about $700 each year on Christmas. But there is no way that they asked everybody in the US how much money they spend on Christmas. They must have conducted a survey to a select group of people. I'd be interested to learn what the average is in certain communities for example, Pewaukee.

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  26. I never really thought about how huge Christmas can be for businesses. There is definitely something to be said for the business achieved in the name of Christmas. It was also a very interesting point to connect the point back to the content and how huge and beneficial Christmas can be to the labor market and the jobs it creates, even if they are temporary.

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  27. This crazy how much Christmas affects businesses. The businesses have an increase revenue, thus creating more jobs. Businesses like Walmart and Best Buy hire new people for Christmas time. Everything around Christmas is increased because people ship gifts, so UPS also increases it revenue.

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