Survey: College kids plan holiday shopping at discounters

Boston – College students are planning to buy holiday gifts that offer experiential value or economic flexibility and will frequent discount stores, according to a new survey of roughly 1,000 college students from consumer marketing firm Fluent.



Asked to identify up to three of their most desired holiday gifts, 59% of students chose cash in their pockets, with the second most requested item being plane tickets at 30%. Casualwear and concert tickets were on 24% of student wish lists, while restaurant gift cards, dress wear, and the first tech item mentioned, tablets, each garnered 22%. Cars (21%) and then music/books/movies as well as laptops (17%) round out the top 10. By contrast, a Fluent 2011 survey found students most-wanted items to be clothing, then tablets, then cash as the top three.



Some 76% plan to spend up to $250 on gifts and gift cards for all relatives. Gifts for fellow students can be less pricey, with 65.7% planning to spend less than $100 total on friends. Large discount stores are the top destination for CMC shoppers, both for brick-and-mortar (66.6%) and online (54.9%) for family gifts and nearly the same for friends’ gifts. They also plan to shop department stores (53% brick-and-mortar, 27.5% online), specialty brands (22.8% in-store, 31.6% online) and 33.4% locally for family.



“This year’s wish lists are a mix of holiday hope and economic pragmatism,” said Michael Carey, executive VP of Fluent. “Students have big-ticket necessities, but know families will try to stretch the budget for one special gift. If a student asks for a few days away from the grind, to fly to visit someone special or to meet friends at a concert, families want to give them one opportunity to relax and reconnect. If they are asking for wardrobe items or even technology required by their schools, the pressure to deliver is even stronger.”