Do you think that the past holiday seasons shopping turnout was related to gas and oil prices?

Oil prices have reached $100 a barrel in the past year and gas prices have followed the trend of increasing as well. Do you think that many people were influenced by the gas prices that shopping for gifts etc. is not worth spending the money for gas aswell?

The prices of oil and gas is a major cause in this years holiday shopping slump. As gas prices keep going up, many consumers decided not to go out to the retailers and spend their hard erned money. Many malls are situated fairly in good driving distance from residential communities. The added cost of gas compoubded by the shopping expenditure made it very costly for those who actually did drive out to the malls. This is very evident in the consumer online shopping statistics. The online shopping industry did very well this year, supassing the sales numbers of retail shops. Consumers just decided that it would be cheaper to shop online rather than drive out to the malls. This trend will surely continue as gas prices keep rising, especially with the recent assasination of ex pakistani prime minister Bhutto. On the day of her death, gas prices spiked as investors saw the incident as a catalyst for worsening tensions within the oil rich middle eastern countries. Don't expect gas and oil prices to drop anytime soon.

I have to say that at my house, our budget is tight. With the gas prices being so high, we were not able to spend what we wanted to at Christmas. It was very disappointing. While pumping gas I would think.... well there went a couple of barbies for my daughter.

I think the cost of gas has started to affect the cost of other goods and services. Not only does it cost more to drive, it costs the truckers more to haul goods to the store which results in higher prices. That and the fact that the housing bubble has popped and people are often stuck in houses that are no longer worth what they paid for them, probably caused many to stay home and save money.

I didn't even realize holiday spending was down until I read your question. I found a survey on it, and sure enough you are right.

http://americanresearchgroup.com/holiday...

Rising gas and oil prices definitely have put some pressure on people's spending patterns. Makes sense- if you spend say $100 more on gas a month, that's $100 less to spend elsewhere.

Another thing that I believe is affecting spending is consumer debt. American credit card debt is at a high level. Don't have a link, but I read about that several months ago.