More than a third of North Carolina residents plan to shop online for Cyber Monday, compared to the 21 percent who plan to shop in-stores on Black Friday.
The most recent Elon University Poll, occurring between Nov. 6-9, surveyed 771 North Carolina residents about their holiday shopping habits, gathering data on how much people plan to spend this year on gifts and when they plan on buying them. Participants were also asked about their opinions on the current state of the economy, more than a year after President Donald Trump's election, and what they predict the economy will look like one year into the future.
About 60 percent of those surveyed said they plan to spend the same amount of money on gifts as they did in previous years, while 25 percent said they will spend less money this holiday season and 13 percent said they will spend more this year than before. This is coupled with participants' outlooks on the state of the economy, where about 39 percent say the economy will stay the same in the upcoming year, 38 percent say that the economy will get better, and 20 percent say it will get worse. These results differed based off political orientation, with 71 percent of Republicans saying the economy is better than it was a year ago.
Similar questions were asked to a pool of North Carolina residents in 2013, and the results indicated that more people would shop on Black Friday, about 26 percent, and 35 percent would shop on Cyber Monday, while 46 percent said their spending would stay the same, compared to the 59 percent today.
In regards to the state of the economy, North Carolina residents are more optimistic than they were four years ago, with 39 percent saying the economy would get worse in 2013, compared to the 20 percent who hold the same view today. About 32.5 percent expected the economy to get better in 2013, while today 38 percent of residents surveyed hope the economy will get better.