Mother’s Day is May 9

A perception that the economy has improved will apparently cause more shoppers to head to department stores this year to buy mom a gift. At least that’s one takeaway from the National Retail Federation’s 2010 Mother’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey conducted by BIGresearch. The survey found the average person will shell out $126.90 on Mother’s Day gifts, compared with $123.89 last year, and that total spending will reach about $14.6 billion.

Discount stores will remain popular with a 30.4% of those surveyed indicating they intend to shop at discounters. However, consumer sentiment has improved slightly, and as a result department stores are expect to be a more popular venue this year with 30.6% of those surveyed indicating they will shop for mom at a department store compared with 27.2% last year.

“After a few years of cutting back on their discretionary spending, consumers will open up their wallets a little bit more to celebrate the woman with the most important job in the world,” said Phil Rist, EVP of strategic initiatives with BIGresearch, the company that conducted the survey of 8,197 consumers the week of April 6.