A potpourri of data appearing this February in PROMO’s sister title

Pack Your Bags Americans are hitting the malls before hitting the road. Along with sunscreen, cameras, film, and toothpaste, vacation travelers are loading up on big-ticket items such as televisions, video cameras, and camping equipment. According to a poll by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), 44 percent, or 66 million, U.S. adults who traveled in the past year made pre-trip purchases. Popular items include camera equipment, purchased by 44 percent of travelers buying before flying; luggage (42 percent); camping equipment (26 percent); and hunting or fishing equipment (25 percent). Other must-haves? Snacks (72 percent), toiletries (64 percent), film/videotape (60 percent), and clothes (54 percent). Fifty-four percent of travelers under age 35 purchase pre-trip gear, compared with 31 percent of those 55 and older. Families and high-income vagabonds also like to stock up before jet setting – 53 percent of travelers with children and 55 percent of those with household incomes of $75,000 or more are prone to pre-trip sprees.

A Work of Art Fine art is making its way from SoHo galleries to suburban living rooms. In 1999, 36 percent of Americans bought fine art to the tune of $33.7 billion, up from $29.8 billion in 1998, according to a study by Unity Marketing. But most of the art currently being bought will not look much different from the art of the past. Sixty-five percent of art dollars in 1999 ($21.4 billion) were spent on reproductions, assuring us that prints of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss and Monet’s Waterlilies will continue to adorn the walls of college dorms and hotel rooms for years to come. Still, starving artists collected a cool $6.5 billion, just barely more than consumers spent on custom-framing ($5.8 billion). What’s with the newfound love of art? Americans are looking to spruce up their digs, add to their collections, and make an investment. The Masters would approve.

A potpourri of data appearing this November in PROMO’s sister title, American Demographics

Family ties that bind are especially true among America’s grandparents and their grandchildren. Today, an increasing number of grandmas and grandpas are assuming the responsibility of taking care of their grandkids. The number of children under age 18 living in grandparent-maintained households increased from 2.2 million in 1970 to 2.3 million in 1980, to 3.9 million in 1997, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau. Moreover, a grandparent heads the household in three out of four families that have both grandparents and grandchildren living together. Some contributing factors to the increase in grandchildren in these “skipped generation” homes include teen pregnancy, divorce, the growth in drug use among parents, and the rapid rise of single-parent households.

Shop and Save Even in a surging economy, Americans are still fond of saving a few bucks. Case in point: the dollar store. According to ACnielsen, 52 percent of U.S. households shopped at dollar stores last year, compared with 47 percent in 1998. While most of these stores are situated in the South and in rural areas, even cosmopolitan Manhattan has sprouted a few. Still, the average dollar shopper comes from a less-than-affluent household. Among “heavy” dollar store shoppers (the 33 percent of customers who generate more than 80 percent of the stores’ revenues), 58 percent live in four-person households earning less than $40,000 annually. So what exactly makes these stores so appealing? Low prices, a wide selection of basic items, and a simple pricing structure.