Popular culture stereotypically tells us that men are mostly given socks, ties and power tools for Father’s Day, but the U.S. retail industry couldn’t believe we’d all give something so boring(!), so since 2006, BIGResearch has been conducting its annual Father’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey (whew!) for the National Retail Federation.

The results of this five-year survey provide an interesting snapshot not just of Father’s Day shopping trends, but overall American consumer confidence.

Shifting trends in consumer activity at restaurants as well as online, clothing, electronics, discount and department stores have been painstakingly recorded and analysed by the survey, as well as the waxing and waning of popularity of such traditional gift categories as tools, sporting goods, books, clothing and electronics. The perennially popular old-fashioned greeting card was also subjected to the survey’s scrutiny.

In fact, it was the classic Father’s Day greeting card that scored highest across all five years of the survey, with between 65 and 70% of respondents indicating their intentions of buying at least one each year (a lot of people are cheapskates if that’s all they’re buying them).

And in spite of the GFC (Gotten Fresh out of Cash), people are still coming up with plenty of dollars to spend on Dad, averaging $94 per person in 2010 compared to $88 in 2006. The national totals are roughly parallel with this, with an estimated $9.8 billion being spent this year compared to only $8.2 billion in 2006.

Having said that, the GFC is possibly still making its presence felt, with over 34% of respondents shopping at discount stores this year compared to only 29% doing the same thing in 2006. While shopping at the big department stores sits roughly at 34% in 2010, this is only a rise of 2% from 2006. Online stores are increasing in popularity, with 20% of respondents making their purchases over the Internet, up from 15% in 2006.

According to the survey, clothing is still one of the most popular gift categories with almost 37% of respondents splashing out on those traditional undies, socks and ties (arghhh!). This figure has been fairly consistent over the five years of the survey, with 32% in 2006 being the lowest. However, less than 8% of respondents are buying these items from specialty clothing stores.

Those more stereotypical Fathers Day gifts such as power tools (17% in 2010), sporting goods (11%) and DIY equipment (also 11%) ranked surprisingly low, with little variation since 2006. Also surprising was the high ranking of eating out at restaurants to mark Fathers Day, scoring almost 40% this year and peaking at almost 43% in 2007.

And exactly who is giving all these goodies to whom? The survey tells us that 49% of people are shopping for their own fathers or stepfathers, but this is down from almost 57% in 2006.  (Does this mean more of the older fathers have died, or that fewer younger men are becoming fathers?)

The percentage of women buying for their own husbands is also down – 27% this year compared to 34% in 2006. Sons fared even lower, with roughly 7% receiving Fathers Day gifts from their parents across all years of the survey. Siblings don’t appear to be great Fathers Day gift buyers with between 4 and 5% of brothers receiving gifts, although grandfathers fared even worse, with only 3 – 4% of them having something to unwrap on Fathers Day. Surprisingly, this is even slightly lower than the proportion of people receiving Fathers Day gifts from their friends, which sits at 4 – 5%.

The world is getting a bit sad when more of your male friends get a Fathers Day gift than dear old GrandDad…

Father’s Day is coming on up Sunday 20 June in the UK, US and a raft of other places; however we can wait until 5 September for it in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Canada.

In a new Father’s Day survey by Wakefield Research on behalf of Western Union, Dads seem to get even more mistreated than their counterparts on Mother’s Day, with nearly half of the men interviewed saying they had to pretend they liked their gift.

(I am guessing the other half did not even pretend.)

About of a third of Dads have to jump up and down and say “yay!” when they get power tools (despite the fact they still haven’t put that shelf up you’ve been asking about since 2005), while 20% are equally as excited (not) in anticipation of receiving yet more cologne. Books and golf balls are also alarmingly over-represented.

While most mothers want their families around them, I’d suspect most Dads just want the day off sans l’enfants…

According to a Father’s Day gifts study we did last year, more women than men make an effort to celebrate Father’s Day, it’s the women who get upset about a lack of effort (not the Dads), and they’d prefer personalised gifts if possible.

Have you ever bought a gift basket (or contributed towards one) for a family member, friend, colleague, client or employee?

Perhaps you bought a gift basket for Christmas, the arrival of a new baby, to express your sympathy, or your congratulations?

Please take part in a quick survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/GiftBasketsSurvey to let us know your experiences and opinions regarding gift baskets.

To thank you for your time, you’ll receive via email (within 24 hours of filling out the survey) a $20 gift certificate code to spend towards astrology reports at http://www.itsinthestarsonline.com with our thanks!

It’s always fascinating to see who buys them, when, and for how much!

The survey should take no more than 2 minutes to complete and it’s completely anonymous. Thanks in advance for your help!

www.surveymonkey.com/s/GiftBasketsSurvey

OK, it’s confirmed: women do shop much more than men, but it’s the boys who spend money like drunken sailors, not us!

SEO and marketing agency Greenlight found men tend to make more expensive, technology-based purchases, such as laptops, smart phones and and MP3 players from online retailers, while women usually buy less-costly clothing and make-up.

Women make 6 in 10 online purchases in Europe, but men outspend them, frittering away an average of 111.50 euros per purchase, compared to women who spend only about 78.09 euros each.

And if it seems like we spend our lives at the shops - here’s proof! According to a study of 2,000 women by market research company OnePoll, when it comes to buying household essentials and keeping the family fed and clothed, the typical female shops for no less than – get this – 25,184 HOURS and 53 minutes over 63 years – or the eqivalent of eight years shopping!

Women also make about 301 shopping trips a year, which pans out with the caveman theory…

Men have never been able to understand why women lurrrve shopping so much, nor can we fathom why they treat shopping like a 100m sprint and throw their hands up in horror at the idea of putting a wedding registry together!

Well, according to researchers, shopping styles have been hard-wired into us all since we were cavepeople…

Researcher Daniel Kruger of the University of Michigan School of Public Health said it goes back to the days when women gathered fruits and vegetables while men hunted for animals for the family BBQ.

He first noticed the differences in shopping styles when he was in Prague with friends. The men couldn’t understand why the first thing the women wanted to do was shop.

He said it’s not so unreasonable when you think about it from a gathering strategy. “Anytime you come into a new area you want to scope out the landscape and see where the food patches are.”

Kruger suggested if you replace the early era activity of foraging for edible plants and funghi with the 21st century practice of filling a basket (supermarket or online) one item at a time, it’s not so hard to see why women shop.

Foraging was – and usually still is – a daily activity, often social, and frequently includes young children. Women are highly adept at noticing different colour, texture and smell to ensure food quality as well as when the vegetation is depleted (in other words, when it’s time to go shopping again)…

Men on the other hand hunted with a single purpose in mind and did it as quickly as possible, returning home with their “kills” shortly afterwards. This explains why men race into department stores, grab the first pair of trousers they see and buy it, often without trying them on, and rarely caring what colour it is. They remain incredibly averse to wandering around without a specific mission.

If you want to put a wedding registry together for example, grab another girlfriend – don’t expect to do it with your fiance.

Let him research the best plasma TV, BBQ equipment or power tools (if you’d like to have such things) to add to the list, but don’t irritate him with the everyday “minor” things like towels, sheets and plates. It might just send him screaming for the hills. Or make him sulk in his cave.

New research has found that people who talk about their experiences are more popular than those who just talk about their “stuff”.

University of Colorado at Boulder psychology professor Leaf van Boven conducted a 10-year study into the social costs and benefits of pursuing happiness through experiences like attending concerts and travelling versus those who seek to be happy through material possessions such as exotic cars and expensive jewellery.

Not only do striving for material possessions make us less happy than the pursuit of life experiences, but it makes us less popular as well.

Van Boven and his colleagues interviewed undergraduates who were randomly paired with anothe student who talked about either a material possession or a life experience they had purchased and were happy with. After talking for 15-20 minutes, the undergraduates were asked about their conversation partner.

The undergraduates were less likely to like those who talked about material posessions than those who discussed an experience they’d paid for, such as travel, and less likely to want to befriend them.

Van Boven said that the students described those with the material posessions as selfish and self-centred while those who undertook experiences were seen as altruistic, friendly and outgoing.

In another experiment, simply learning that someone made a material purchase made them like them less than hearing about those who paid for an experience.

Hmmmm – this might be a GREAT article to show your Generation Z kids who are clamouring for the latest thing for their birthday or Christmas: tell them it won’t make ‘em popular!

Have you got someone in your family or circle of friends who is notorious for sending your birthday gift so late, they should buy a bulk lot of belated birthday cards?

Research has discovered that about 15-20% of the population are procrastinators. They put off doing their taxes, making the tough phone call or conversation, and of course, getting your present to you on time. It’s not that they don’t care (although it might seem like it).

Dr Piers Steel, a University of Calgary professor found that procrastinators have less confidence in themselves, less expectation that they can actually complete a task than those who just get on it with it. They also suffer task aversiveness (what do you mean you haven’t bought me anything for my birthday?!), are impulsive, and easily distracted.

Ironically, procrastinators believe it would be better to start working on a given task immediately, but still don’t start.

It’s not that they’re perfectionists either. Perfectionists procrastinate less, but worry about the task more.

Despite plastic gift cards being universally popular with consumers, only one in 10 retailers currently stock them, with more than half saying they have nothing to do with their business.

The online survey conducted by Gifts By The Stars at http://gifts-by-the-stars-online.com found that 98.5% of respondents had bought at least one plastic gift card for a friend, family member or colleague.

“According to the survey, 83.1% think plastic gift cards are an easy gift option, 78.5% say they’re great for last-minute gift emergencies and 75.4% believe they’re quick,” said Elizabeth Ball, who writes the Gifts By The Stars blog.

“Respondents also saw gift cards as affordable (38.5%), safe (26.2%), fun (20.0%), although very few perceived them as a unique (4.6%) gift option,” she said.

Affordability, of course, depends on how much you’re spending. People were most likely to purchase plastic gift cards valued at $50 (81.8%), $20 (63.6%), $30 (50.0%), $100 (40.9%), and $10 (31.8%) with 13.7% opting to spend $150 or more.

“Surprisingly though, although nearly everyone has bought at least one card, it seems plastic gift cards are sold only by the biggest retailers,” Elizabeth Ball said.

“It seems most smaller retailers can’t see what value they can add to their business with 52.6% saying gift cards had nothing to do with their business.”

Only 10.6% of retailers sold plastic gift cards in their bricks-and-mortar stores and/or online, although 5.3% plan to sell them in the near future. Paper gift certificates were much more popular with 19.3% of retailers selling them online and/or in-store, while 12.3% of retailers sold electronic gift certificates through their websites.

Impulse purchases have been proven to work so retailers will sell more of them if they’re within reach. The survey found consumers expected to see plastic gift cards displayed in a bricks-and-mortar store in their own box next to the cash register (44.8%), hanging on a rack (35.8%), on the wall behind the cash register (14.9%), or on the shelves in their own box (4.5%).

Retailers are so doubtful about their ability to sell plastic gift cards that 54.5% would order 20 gift cards or less at a time, with only 36.4% willing to order 50 or more.

Did you buy any of the top 24 gifts listed for 2009 for an anniversary, birthday, christening, Christmas, engagement, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, new baby, Valentine’s Day or wedding gift? I bet you did!

According to consumer insights company Unity Marketing, they were:

1 (46%). Books (I gave one each as a Christmas prezzie and a thank-you gift for Dad, to Mum for Mother’s Day, and to nephew Sol for his birthday but I’m sure I gave many more!)
2 (36%). Chocolate – boxed or pick-your-own (hmmm – does that count buying them for yourself?)
4 (28%). Men’s clothing (to brother David for his birthday)
5 (26%). Bath and body soaps and lotions
6 (24%). Toys including action figures, building sets, sports toys, vehicles
7 (22%). Games/puzzles
8 (22%). Children’s clothing (for niece Camille, and nephews Lachie and Sol for Christmas)
9 (20%). Candles and/or candle accessories
10 (19%). Flowers, plants and /or garden accessories including bouquets
11 (17%). Wine and/or wine tasting gifts
12. (16%) Gift baskets including cookies, snacks, fruit, candy, wine (I gave this to Audra for her housewarming)
13 (15%). Video/DVDs (I gave a boxed set of the Marx Bros to my grandfather for Christmas)
14 (15%). Fragrance/perfume
15 (15%). Electronic games such as Wii
16 (14%). Women’s accessories eg handbags, belts, wallets, scarves, shawls
17 (14%). Coffe and tea gifts
18 (14%). MP3 players, iPods and personal audio devices
19 (13%). Plush/stuffed animals
20 (13%) Teenage clothing (I wonder if so few were bought because we’re afraid of getting it wrong?!)
21 (13%). Dining/restaurant experience
22 (12%) Liquors and spirits (I gave someone champagne…)
23 (12%) Gift card – discount department stores and mass merchants eg WalMart, Target etc (I’m surprised this was so far down the list but Mum got one for Mother’s Day and stepmother Jo for her birthday although it was really a gift voucher)
24. (12%) Baby/infants’ clothing including booties and hats (I got a personalised one made for niece Camille for Christmas – she was running a bit late being born though so it really became her birth-day present).

I’d love to know where personalised gifts came in on the list… As well as homewares that all of us seem to be asked to buy on wedding gift registry lists!

As soon as the last heart-shaped box of chocolate has been cleared out of the supermarket following Valentine’s Day, it seems the shelves are immediately stocked with chocolate goodies for Easter.

Think back to 2009. Did you actually buy yourself any Easter eggs or boxes of chocolate for your birthday? Or did you buy none for yourself but quite a few for others?

Scientists have confirmed that other people are hell – sorry – that other people are great at ruining your diet. Scientist Juliano Laran at the University of Miami found that you use more self-control when it comes to making your own choices about fattening fun things like chocolate, but that you’d choose indulgent diet-breakers for others.

Research respondents were asked to choose four items from a list of 16 foods, comprising healthy food items (eg raisins, celery sticks) and indulgent products like chocolate, doughnuts, ice cream and so on. Half the participants were to choose items for themselves and half selected foods for others. Those who chose foods for themselves tended to select two items that were healthy and two that were indulgent. Those selecting for other people chose mainly indulgent foods.

It’s not clear if the people selecting fattening foods did it to please and delight others (who’d be thrilled with a Tupperwear container of celery sticks?) or if they’re actually dastardly frenemies out to ruin your diet plans.

If you do plan to give an Easter gift this year to someone who’s say, a little round around the edges, give them the real gift of helping them to stay healthy, and give them a non-chocolate present any bunny would love - perhaps one with karats?