Electronic gadgets set to rule this holiday season
Consumer electronics (CE) gifts will account for a quarter of all holiday gifts, with revenues reaching $21 billion this holiday season, compared to $17 billion (21 percent) in 2005, according to a study by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).
According to the CEA’s annual Holiday Purchase Patterns study, overall household spending for the holidays 
(factoring in gifts, decorations, food, travel and other assorted holiday expenses) will be up 14 percent this year to $1,625. Of that, half will be spent on gifts - a 27 percent increase compared to last year - and consumers will spend $195 on average for CE gifts.
“The upgrade cycle is driving a lot of this growth,” said the CEA’s Director of Industry Analysis Sean Wargo. “Lured in by the declining prices on many new digital products, consumers are spending more for consumer electronics on average than they have in the past. An example of this is the MP3 player versus the portable CD player. The initial price for an MP3 player is higher than the initial price five or 10 years ago for a portable CD player.”
The survey also tracked what consumer electronics consumers want the most (wish-list items) and what they are mostly likely to give (gift-list items) this holiday season. For the second year in a row, MP3 players topped the wish list among adults. The rest of the Top 10 list included: all types DVD players/recorders, digital cameras, laptops and PCs, televisions, video game systems, cellular phones, camcorders and HDTVs.
Topping the gift list, or what consumers actually plan to buy, this holiday season are digital cameras, cellular phones, MP3 players, video game consoles, portable CD players, carrying cases, cordless phones, additional memory for digital cameras, laptops and clock radios.
For the third year in a row, CEA also surveyed teen participants aged 12-17. Rounding out the top three CE wish-list items for teens were MP3 players, video game consoles and computers. “Our survey also measured where technology ranks in consumers’ overall holiday wish list. For adults, most wanted clothes, peace and happiness, money, computers and digital cameras. For teens, clothes, CDs books, video games and money are the most desired gifts this holiday season,” Wargo said.
These stores don’t have a healthy appetite for healthier snacks
Retailers can be an unexpected barrier to healthy eating, according to an October Wall Street Journal article. The story detailed PepsiCo’s difficulties in convincing Chicago convenience store owners to stock its line of baked snack products.
Fearing that the baked products won’t sell as fast as their less-healthy cousins, some store owners - particularly the smaller, independent operators - prefer to give the most room to the old standbys like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. In addition, with their pay tied to sales, PepsiCo salespeople are hesitant to force store owners to stock the baked products.
The article is an interesting look at the process undertaken by a major food company to improve the image of its product offerings. Creating and perfecting a line of healthy snacks is just the beginning. The hard part is earning retail shelf space and also fending off the attacks of skeptical commentators, who view the go-healthy efforts as little more than calculated ploys to fend off class-action lawsuits.
“Pepsi Sales Force Tries to Push ‘Healthier’ Snacks in Inner City,” Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2006
Booklet urges Hispanic consumers to eschew American eating habits
The Facts, Figures, & The Future e-newsletter (www.factsfiguresfuture.com) reported on efforts by the Latino Nutrition Coalition (LNC) to issue a booklet urging Hispanics to return to their culinary roots.
The longer Latinos live here and acculturate, the likelier they are to adopt an American diet and lifestyle that produces rampant obesity and diabetes. Not surprisingly, these conditions are surging among the 41 million Latino populace here - to a point where Type 2 diabetes is already 150 percent more prevalent than among whites, says the American Diabetes Association. “When they come to the U.S., they’re young and healthy. In five years, their diet changes. We need to reverse this trend,” said Liz Mintz, manager of the LNC, a group formed by Oldways Preservation Trust, a Boston-based non-profit food-issues think tank, which previously conceived the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid and the Whole Grains Council.
LNC has created a 16-page passport-size bilingual booklet titled “Camino Magico” (Magic Road) to urge a return to the traditional Latin American diet. One million copies will be distributed to community influentials (churches, health centers, retailers) in Miami and parts of California and Texas by January/February 2007, and to New York and Chicago soon after.
LNC predicts the effort will spur sales activity in these categories: frozen and canned vegetables; soups; soy milk; tortillas, tamales, arepas and pandebono; spices such as cumino, recaito and achiote as alternatives to salt; rice; beans, specifically black, red, pinto, chick peas and lentils; cheeses such as campesino and casero; fruit juices such as lulo, guanábana and maracuyá; cereals, particularly oatmeal as a beverage ingredient to make it healthier and more substantial (example: avena - made of milk, cinnamon and oatmeal).
To encourage free distribution of the booklets in stores with heavy Latino populations, LNC is offering retailers their chain logo on the cover, so customers will see them as a caring authority on healthful eating. LNC will also provide manufacturer sponsors in the booklets, as well as display racks, and will train retailers to host cooking demonstrations in-store. “We’ll make it easy for people to buy everything they need to reproduce the meal. As we teach them healthier cooking and give them methods to cook, they’ll eat less at fast-food restaurants, and retailers will gain,” said Mintz. For more information visit www.latinonutrition.org.