Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2010. It is a news piece about the 2010 Christmas season in Spain, covering growth in toy and gift sales during the crisis, average spending per child forecast above 2006, and e-readers and iPads as top gifts in the US.
According to an official report, the toy industry has not only escaped the crisis but has actually grown during it. Average spending per child this Christmas is expected to be higher than in 2006. And when we talk about toys, we shouldn’t forget the gift shop business, which has also seen a considerable increase.
It’s worth pointing out that while toys for young children are, once again, driven by advertising and the movies, in the gift sector the customer has changed.
These days, in any shop selling gift items, whether for Christmas, Valentine’s Day or birthdays, the customer is far more selective, wants something new and, above all, wants to give their partner something original. As we saw earlier, this Christmas’s star gift was a portrait of your DNA, which, whatever else you might say about it, is undeniably original.
While the top gifts in the United States were tech products such as e-readers and the iPad, in Spain we still haven’t really taken to new technology, much less as a gift. The e-book was a success around the world, but in Spain people even spoke of a resounding failure.
Still, let’s focus on the good side of this news: we may be prioritising our spending on the people we love most. Clearly, people in Spain are saving much more than before and scrutinising every expense. If the gift business has grown, it surely means that in these hard times we’re giving more importance to family, friends and all our loved ones.
But once again the keyword that will set us apart from now on comes up: innovation.
Further reading
Featured image: BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
