In the news
Jan 28, 2010
Will You Be My Frugal Valentine?
The New York Times
By Stuart Elliott
MADISON AVENUE is going high and low for Valentine’s Day, as in low prices and high technology.
Valentine’s Day is always among the most commercialized holidays on the marketing calendar, offering retailers and advertisers a chance to extract money from those consumers who have managed to refill bank accounts after depleting them for Christmas shopping. The National Retail Federation estimates that Americans spent $14.7 billion last year on Valentine’s Day purchases.
This year, however, is the third Valentine’s Day since the recession and financial crisis turned most Americans into savers rather than spenders. In fact, the billions spent for the holiday in 2009 represented a decline of 13.5 percent from the $17 billion spent in 2008, according to the federation.
In a study released on Wednesday by the Context-Based Research Group and Carton Donofrio Partners, both based in Baltimore, 88 percent of respondents said they had taken steps to spend less and 83 percent said they had made permanent changes in spending and saving behavior.
“We believe the changes in behavior represent a permanent shift,” said Cleve Corlett, director for quantitative research at Context-Based Research, “because they come from a deep evaluation of personal beliefs.”
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