SAN ANTONIO – It’s the holiday season, but will it be easy to find savings on shopping this year?
The National Retail Federation expects Americans to break a record this holiday season, projecting shoppers to spend more than $1 trillion. But two San Antonio professors say there’s more to this shopping story.
David Vequist, a professor of management at the University of the Incarnate Word, told KSAT that while more people will spend money this season, he predicts each person’s individual spending likely will be less overall.
“The real story is that inflation has picked up the prices of many items, so therefore the actual spending is less,” Vequist said. “We’ve experienced nearly four years of inflation.”
Wondering why prices for certain products are high this year? Vequist said inflation and tariffs are at the top of the list.
In San Antonio, Vequist and Wendy Boaglio Gratereaux, a UT San Antonio professor of practice in marketing, said the recent government shutdown and the current unemployment rate are impacting who is shopping and how much they can spend.
“A lot of consumers are just a little bit leery to go all out this year,” Boaglio Gratereaux said. “Overall, we have not seen the drastic drops in a lot of products.”
Economists recommend price checking products before buying, targeting discounts by certain items and shopping early this holiday season to save some cash.
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