Unemployment be damned: Americans spent at a record pace over the holidays

Photo caption: Holiday shoppers make a last-minute trip to department stores in Midtown Manhattan Dec. 24, 2020. Getty Images. Article by Lisa Fickenscher. New York Post – December 30, 2020.

Having nowhere to go and nothing to do is proving an unexpected but lucrative formula for retailers.

Holiday spending rose by 6.8 percent to a record $756 billion in November and December, according to new research.

Driving the demand, according to retail consulting firm Customer Growth Partners, was a surge in disposable income as consumers hunkered down at home and eschewed activities considered unsafe during a pandemic — including vacations, concerts and sporting events.

“Spending has rotated from spending on services over to goods and this is a substantive shift,” said Craig Johnson, president of CGP, which distributed the findings on Wednesday to clients and media. […]

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