The Worth: Christmas Shopping

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“Christmas Shopping – a chore or a pleasure? Looks like we’re more Grinch than Santa”


As Christmas approaches, the pleasure of the shopping and festivities can quickly turn to stress. In this Bite we examine people’s Christmas shopping habits and enjoyment, and ask whether they would pay someone else to take the burden off their hands.

On average, we found UK residents estimate that they spend 14 hours doing Christmas shopping, with those on lower disposable income putting in more hours. Women also take on more of the duty, estimating that they spend 19 hours Christmas shopping, nearly double the 10 hours estimated by men.

A remarkable 61% of respondents said they would be willing to pay for someone else to do their Christmas shopping for them. The average amount people were willing to pay was £150. Given the average time this shopping takes, that is equivalent to £11 per hour, over twice the minimum wage but about the same as the UK’s average hourly take home pay. Looks like the pressure of stocking filling has become too much for our respondents!

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