Jun 17, 2007

Dad’s Day Big For RetailersBy Anthony CroninTheDay.com

Happy Father’s Day — all 64.3 million of you. That’s a lot of gifts — ties, grills, power tools and the like — for a lot of dads today. Like so many of our holidays, Father’s Day is now a retailing bonanza for merchants large and small.

If your daily workplace is retail, you must be glad this past week is over. Because from the neighborhood hardware store to the mall, Father’s Day this year brought in nearly $10 billion for retailers as we honor the guy who toils in the garage — or serves up the pasta in the kitchen.

The National Retail Federation said consumers spent about $9.9 billion for this Father’s Day — that’s an average of about $98 spent on Dad per gift-giver, up from about almost $89 this past year.

Those retailing experts also point out that men spent more than women on Father’s Day — for their dads, for instance. Men spent about $100 on average this holiday vs. about $96 for women.

Among the most popular gifts, according to the Washington, D.C.-based retailing trade group, were cards, dinner, apparel (perhaps a nice tie?) and gift cards. Consumer electronics also rated high, along with sporting goods (perhaps golf clubs were in order).

NRF officials said rising gas prices did little to dent the increase in spending for this holiday and said gift cards remained a popular item because they allow dads to determine what’s best for the den, garage or whatever.

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