With the holidays approaching, experts expect consumers to spend more this year than they have in the past decade — but they’ll still wait as long as it takes for a good bargain.
On average, each person is expected to spend about $1,300 on the holidays, including everything from gifts and decorations to holiday parties and events.
That’s a roughly 4 percent increase from last year, and economists say it's because of job growth and lower unemployment rates.
But though consumers are spending more, they’re waiting longer to spend it.
"f you come on the Sunday before Christmas, you’re going to save more money than on Black Friday," said Cynthia Williams, who was shopping at the Glendale Galleria Thursday.
Williams is not alone. More than 40 percent of consumers will wait until December to do their holiday shopping, with the hopes that prices will drop the closer it gets to Christmas.
"You do find a lot of people thinking they're going to wait until later in the season to take advantage of even steeper discounts and bargains," said economist Kimberly Ritter-Martinez. "That's just a mindset a lot of us have gotten used to and it's going to continue through this year."
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It’s a mindset we got into during the recession, but despite the improving economy, many are holding out for deals.
However, some things haven’t changed — the most popular items this year are expected to be clothing and gift cards.
