{"id":39606,"date":"2025-11-27T21:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/shoppers-brace-for-a-tighter-holiday-season-as-gift-prices-keep-climbing-bofa-survey\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T21:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:31:11","slug":"shoppers-brace-for-a-tighter-holiday-season-as-gift-prices-keep-climbing-bofa-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/shoppers-brace-for-a-tighter-holiday-season-as-gift-prices-keep-climbing-bofa-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoppers brace for a tighter holiday season as gift prices keep climbing: BofA survey"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6928a648abd5e944effba6ff?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Holiday purchase with a credit card\"\/><figcaption>Some consumers are frustrated that they&#039;re spending more this holiday season only to get less amid rising prices, new Bank of America survey results show.<\/p>\n<p>CentralITAlliance\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Two new BofA reports warn holiday spending may tighten as prices keep rising.<\/li>\n<li>Shoppers may feel the pinch as inflation, tariffs, and higher costs put a strain on their budgets.<\/li>\n<li>Electronics and jewelry could see the sharpest pullback as tariffs drive up prices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Santa won&#039;t be the only one tightening his belt this year \u2014 the American consumer is already feeling the pinch, and many haven&#039;t even finished digesting their Thanksgiving stuffing. As we head into Black Friday weekend, the forecast for holiday shoppers may be chilly: prices on consumer goods are rising faster than is comfortable for many gift-givers, according to two recent reports by Bank of America.<\/p>\n<p>Sixty-two percent of the more than 2,000 respondents to Bank of America&#039;s holiday survey, conducted in late summer, said they expected financial strain tied to holiday expenses, and 58% say gifts feel more expensive.<\/p>\n<p>More than half of the respondents pointed to tariffs as a suspected cause. The firm found that tariffs announced this spring likely contributed to price increases in categories such as electronics and jewelry, goods often purchased as holiday gifts.<\/p>\n<p>Holiday spending per household is up about 6% according to the bank&#039;s card data, yet retail transaction volumes have declined slightly over the course of the year. The takeaway: shoppers are shelling out more, only to walk away with less.<\/p>\n<p>BofA&#039;s reports also point to a widening chasm in how those along different income brackets are likely to experience the season&#039;s bounty.<\/p>\n<p>Higher-income households continue to show spending and wage growth that outpace everyone else. Many white-collar professionals, such as Wall Street investment bankers, are expected to have surging bonus years, according to forecasts, which is likely to hand six-figure year-end incentive pay for higher-income earners.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Buyer&#039;s remorse<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>For everyone else, the most wonderful time of the year is already fomenting stress at the checkout counter.<\/p>\n<p>Electronics spending per transaction jumped nearly 8% in a single month after the spring tariffs, and jewelry spending rose about four percentage points after an August tariff announcement, the bank found. Add in record-high gold prices this year \u2014 which have made gold-based pieces costlier \u2014 and suddenly, holiday gift-giving has relinquished some of its luster.<\/p>\n<p>With rising prices leaving some shoppers with fewer items to buy, survey respondents say they&#039;re getting more selective about who will end up on their &quot;naughty&quot; or &quot;nice&quot; lists.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-eight percent say they&#039;ll only buy gifts for immediate family and close friends, while 23% have agreed with relatives to scale back their gift-giving.<\/p>\n<p>Among those feeling financial strain, 87% plan to shop at discount stores to counter rising prices, and 51% say they&#039;d consider gifting a &quot;dupe,&quot; a cheaper imitation of a luxury item. More than half said they planned to kick off their shopping sprees earlier than usual to spread out expenses, the survey found.<\/p>\n<p>Card data showed that spending by high earners increased roughly 3% over the past year, compared with less than 1% for lower-income households. The firm said wage growth followed a similar split \u2014 after-tax pay rose about 4% for higher earners, but only about 1% for those at the bottom. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, is warning that the labor market is softening across tech, manufacturing, and other sectors, which could squeeze those already on the edge.<\/p>\n<p>That means, with prices climbing and paychecks under pressure, holiday shoppers may be left wondering who&#039;s actually going to come down the chimney this year: Santa Claus with a sack of toys, or the Grinch, offering only an inflationary pinch.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some consumers are frustrated that they&#039;re spending more this holiday season only to get less amid rising prices, new Bank of America survey results show. CentralITAlliance\/Getty Images Two new BofA reports warn holiday spending may tighten as prices keep rising. Shoppers may feel the pinch as inflation, tariffs, and higher costs put a strain on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}