Often people say they have a friend or relative who is “hard to buy for” as the holidays approach. A subset of that is “people who already have everything they need.” It turns out a lot of people are hard to buy for, to the extent that they do not like many of the gifts they do get.
According to Finder, $9.5 billion is spent on “wasted gifts.” The site found some people keep them, but a lot of people also throw them away. Some probably get used for regifting.
Some of the findings:
Finder estimates Americans waste over $9.5 billion on unwanted gifts every year.
More than half of Americans, 54%, don’t like at least one gift they receive for Christmas every year. Men are fussiest, with 55% admitting this, compared to 54% of women.
These people receive 2.3 unwanted gifts on average each year; 2.2 for women and 2.6 for men.
These presents are worth $31 each ($30 for women and $33 for men) — that’s $71 wasted on each of these people every year.
Some 39% of people keep these gifts anyway, while a quarter (26%) exchange them, one in five give them to someone else, 3% donate their unwanted gifts to charity and 1% even throw them away.
Most unwanted presents are clothing and accessories (46%), followed by household items (13%), cosmetics and fragrances (12%), literature (6%), technology (5%), food and drink (4%) and music (3%).
Other unwanted gifts (11%) include sex toys, gift cards, jewelry, wall calendars, scented candles and gag gifts.
Friends give the worst presents, followed by parents, then in-laws and then partners. Some 8% of Americans said their partners give the worst gifts.
More than one in 10 Americans (12%) admitted that they have deliberately bought a present they knew the recipient wouldn’t like. Men are the biggest culprits of this, with 21% admitting they have done this, while 8% of women have.
Just 1% of people said getting drunk was their favorite part about the holidays, while 4% said there’s nothing they like about Christmas.
Others said they love everything about the holidays, decorating and Christmas lights, celebrating the birth of Jesus, and some said their favorite part is when it’s over.
Bosses are who Americans most don’t want to buy presents for, followed by their mothers-in-law.
Almost one in five (18%) Americans said their partners are hopeless at buying presents for them.
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