With Christmas just four days away, here are some last-minute ideas for those 20- and 30-somethings on your gift list. Fashion and luxury goods, including designer purses and watches, and technology gifts top the holiday wish list of Gen Y consumers. That's according to the National Retail Federation Web site.
Described as "social and spontaneous," it's a generation that likes to customize and choose its own gifts, the federation said. "They like to shop and they like to pick out what they want," said June Kramer, manager of Book World in Manitowoc, of customers in their 20s and 30s. "It's an easy gift to buy when you don't know what to give someone," said Kevin Herrmann, assistant store director of Copps Food Center in Manitowoc.
"We went from a small rack that was on wheels to a full end cap display of gift cards." Copps is one of a number of local retailers that have started selling gift cards not only for their own stores, but for other stores as well. Copps began carrying gift cards about two years ago and offers them for more than 30 different stores and restaurants, located in and out of town.
A gift card is more personalized than cash, Herrmann said, and with a large selection available locally, shoppers don't have to drive to other cities to buy them. Consumers are expected to spend an all-time high of $24.81 billion on gift cards this holiday season, a $6 billion increase over last year, according to the National Retail Federation.
"Sometimes people don't have to be straining their brain for that perfect thing because it will be re-gifted anyway," Kramer said. "A lot of that age group are doing it because they aren't getting what they want." Other last-minute gift ideas for the 20s and 30s group are engagement calendars and date books, she said.
"They're busy people. They have to plan out their lives," Kramer said. "It may be hard to believe, but that age group sometimes finds the classics appealing, the books they either read in college or they want to go back and read.
" Lighters, too, hold certain appeal. "If they go to the bars or clubs, it's cool if when you light up and you have a lighter," Kramer said. Picking up a bottle of wine is a typical last-minute holiday gift item, but that's not all that's hot in alcoholic beverages at holiday time.
Sue Baugniet, manager of Timber Lodge Liquor in Manitowoc, has been doing brisk sales in Miller's new chocolate beer. "We have gone through I can't even begin to tell you how many cases," she said. "I've never seen a beer go so fast, and I've been here 10 years.
" The beer is a seasonal item that's been attracting attention because of its novelty factor, Baugniet said. Holiday beer gift packs also are popular and can include a selection of microbrews, beers from around the world or varieties from different breweries. Fixings for flavored martinis also are big: chocolate, mango and pome-granate, to name a few.
Baugniet also carries black cherry, orange, lime, apple and grape vodkas, and pineapple, orange and lime tequilas. Music is always popular, and some of it has been spanning the generation gap. "We see kids and their father like the same music now," said Jim Vogel, owner of Dr.
Freud's Records and Tapes in Manitowoc. Rap is a big seller. The new Bob Dylan CD, "Modern Times," and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Stadium Arcadium" also have been selling well, he said.
The Beatles "Love" collection has been appealing to all ages, Vogel said.
News RSS