Survey: Shoppers taking their time holiday shopping

Less than a month into the 2001 holiday shopping season, 29% of shoppers hadn’t started their shopping yet, according to the second weekly holiday shopping survey released by the International Mass Retail Association (IMRA) and conducted by MarketFacts. About 13% had already spent more than they had anticipated, while 24% had spent less than a quarter of their holiday gift budget. The greatest share of holiday shoppers (44%) are doing most of their shopping at discount department stores. Five percent are shopping through catalogs or other nonstore retailers, and another 5% are shopping online. IMRA surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers by telephone from Nov. 30-Dec. 2.