What’s the Fourth of July without a parade, barbecue, and fireworks? This year, those traditional Independence Day activities are in jeopardy, at least in some locales and for some people, due to the global pandemic.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) surveyed 7,762 consumers in early June to see what their plans were for this holiday weekend.
The trade organization found that this year, 76% of consumers planned to celebrate the holiday, down from 86% in 2019.
Fifty-six percent planned a cookout, and 24% said they planned to celebrate the Fourth of July by attending a community celebration, down from last year’s 41%.
Those who had plans for the holiday expected to spend more on average than last year (over $76 compared to $73 in 2019).
Consumers are expected to spend $6.52 billion in 2020 on Independence Day food items compared to $6.8 billion in 2019. Spending was $7.15 billion at its recent peak in 2017.
We noted with an interest an AP reporter’s tweets about outdoor shopping outlets she visited as she headed from New York to celebrate the holiday weekend in Massachusetts. In Connecticut, she noted, “Stores limiting customers inside. Saw that every other sink in public bathroom is cordoned off.”
At a shopping outlet on Cape Cod, she posted a snippet of video showing shoppers, calling it, “Very busy.”
You can read more results from the survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, on the NRF.com website.
The government offers guidance on COVID on the CDC website.
Here in small town america we are in the midst of a parade right now and later we will have fireworks over the dams. Town of 16000 and very few face rags seen. We refuse to be afraid and hide in the basement. We will live our lives as usual. There hasn’t been one not one case of Covid within a 200 miles radius from us.