Santa feeling the squeeze of inflation in Western New York

Victor, N.Y. — Even Santa is feeling the squeeze of inflation this year with some people choosing to scale back their holiday spending.

With the holiday season in full swing and prices on the rise, some shoppers are having to make the choice of whether to keep things the same or cut back on how much they stuff stockings this year.

“We are definitely cutting back as a home," said Kerry Haley, who was shopping at Eastview Mall Thursday. "I was just saying to my husband yesterday, it's not just one thing that costs more — it's everything that costs more."

According to the All-American Economic Survey, 41 percent of shoppers across the country plan to cut back on holiday spending, impacting businesses in more ways than one.

For 2021, businesses saw a 15 percent increase during the holiday months, causing companies to bring in more products for this year.

Even with stores offering between 50 and 70 percent off at some locations, research shows at least an 11 percent decrease in sales this year so far.

“What happened is. because of the economy slowdown, because of the freezes, and because of all of those issues that we have looked at, consumers are less willing to spend,” said Laharish Guntuka, a management professor at RIT.

But not every shopper plans to cut back.

A Siena poll shows that here in New York state, slightly more than one in five shoppers said they plan to spend the same amount or more this year compared to 2021.

“No big changes," said shopper James Cleveland. "We are probably going to stick to traditional, the budgets that we have all had.

“I mean, we take the holidays the same year by year as it comes.”