It’s already holiday shopping time for the early birds

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked about holiday shopping: As we head into the fourth non-lockdown holiday season of the pandemic/endemic… yeah, that. We have pandemic tracker data going back to 2021, so time to fire up these questions again.

What we found: About one in five have already started (or will by the time you read this) their holiday shopping, which is about in line with all the previous years we can trend. There was much more uncertainty at this point in 2021 (15% didn’t know when they would start shopping vs. 8% this year) but there was so much uncertainty about everything at that point. One thing we’ll note is that the intent data has tracked very well with the after-the-fact reporting on when people did shop. So, expect that the one in five who say they will get it going in October to actually get on it. Only about one in ten say (and do) wait until December. November is when the plurality start their shopping, but half of those who say they will shop have started before then. But since the president of Venezuela has declared that Christmas in his nation now starts on Oct. 1, maybe folks should get going already.

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

It’s not just higher prices driving increased grocery spend

We think we know about sweeteners, but do we?

The Ipsos Care-o-Meter: What does America know about vs. what does America care about?