The FINANCIAL — New York, N.Y. – It's that time of year – kids are thinking of their lists and parents are dreading the toy commercials on TV and the catalogs coming into the house, according to Harris Interactive Inc.
But, for kids, it's that wonderful time of the year and half of Americans (50%) say they will be purchasing toys as gifts this holiday season, likely making kids very happy. This is slightly down from the 52% of U.S. adults who said they were purchasing toys last year. Not surprisingly, being a parent to someone under 18 impacts purchase intent considerably – four in five of these parents (81%) say they plan to purchase toys, compared to 41% of those who are not parents of a child under 18, according to the report.
This holiday season is hitting after a government shutdown and before the same government officials need to decide if it will happen again in January. Does this have an impact on how much people are spending on toys? While one in five Americans who will purchase toys (20%) say they will be spending more than they did last year on toys, one-third of toy purchasers (32%) will be spending less; 44% say their spending on toys will be no different than last year.
Among toy-shopping parents, 26% say they will spend more than they did last year, 38% say their spending will be no different and one-third (33%) say they will spend less than they did last year, according to the report.
While there may be visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, kids are probably dreaming about the gifts that they hope to unwrap this holiday season. Judging by what parents will be purchasing, half of kids will be unwrapping games for consoles (51%). Two in five parents will be purchasing children's books (43%), board games (39%) and building blocks and bricks (38%), while 37% will be buying arts and crafts supplies this year. Just over one-third of parents will be buying dolls (35%) and 32% will purchase handheld electronic games, while 29% will buy sports equipment and 27% will be buying game consoles.
Among non-parents, the top toy purchase this year will be children's books (39%), followed by arts and crafts products (27%) and dolls (23%).
When it comes to making these toy purchases, shoppers have choices, but almost half (47%) will purchase from a large discount store and 33% will buy online, according to Harris Interactive Inc. One in ten (11%) will buy their toys from a national toy store retail chain and 4% from a local toy store. This is a small change from last year, when 51% of toy shoppers were buying from large discount stores and 27% said they would buy their toys online.
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