Budgets/Spending/Market Size

Washington, D.C. – Valentine’s Day should be especially sweet for retailers this year. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) Valentine’s Day Consumer Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, the average person celebrating Valentine’s Day will spend $142.31 on candy, flowers, apparel and more.

That figure is up 6% from $133.91 in 2013. Total spending is expected to reach $18.9 billion, a survey high.

Less than a week after getting shareholder approval to sell itself to Dollar Tree Inc., Family Dollar said fewer discounts led to increased December sales.

For the month ended Jan. 3, Family Dollar said its sales increased 3.6% to $1.21 billion from a year earlier. Same-store sales increased 1.2%, compared with a 3% decline last December.

New York – E-commerce revenue continued its strong growth trend of recent year in 2014. According to the Custora E-Commerce Pulse 2014 Holiday Recap Report, U.S. e-commerce revenue was up 15.6% from the 2013 holiday season.

Black Friday (20.6% year-over-year jump in revenue) and Cyber Monday (15.4% year-over-year revenue growth) were the two biggest single e-commerce shopping days of the 2014 holiday season.

Washington, D.C. -- Restaurants will remain the nation’s hottest hirer this year.  An annual report by the National Restaurant Association indicated that, as it has for the last 16 years, the restaurant industry employment will outpace employment growth in 2015.

New York - With gas prices down 31% since June 2014 and oil prices tumbling to their lowest levels in several years, American consumer confidence has improved dramatically. According to the Nielsen Consumer Confidence Report, in fourth quarter 2014 U.S. consumer confidence went up 12 percentage points year-over-year.

NEW YORK — A survey conducted in eight world markets during the latter half of January 2015 revealed insights on online purchasing habits of consumers in winter. The survey was jointly carried out with One Hour Translation and Google Consumer Surveys and was based on a sample of 800 respondents — 100 from each of the following countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.

Alexandria, Va. - The U.S. convenience store count increased to 152,794 stores as of Dec. 31, 2014. That marks a nearly 1% increase from the prior year, according to the 2015 NACS/Nielsen Convenience Industry Store Count.

New York – Consumers mostly spent within their means during the 2014 holiday season. Only one-in-six Americans spent more than expected this holiday season, according to a new Bankrate.com report.  

This is consistent with readings in previous years. Millennials (Americans ages 18-29) were twice as likely as those ages 30-49 to have spent more during the holidays than intended. Overall, one-in-four Americans spent less than expected this holiday season.