Retailers like to portray holiday shopping as an exuberant joyful activity, and for some folks that’s certainly the case. Well, there are a number of surveys that have found that the delight of holiday shopping is far from universal.
The Pew Research Center identified the three things people hated most about the holidays all had to do with money, commercialism, and shopping, in general. Specifically, commercialism, the expense attached to the holidays, and the nuisance and headaches of the shopping experience itself, ranked one-two-three among the things that turn folks Grinch-like regarding the holidays. That’s what Pew found out in 2013.
A few years later, in 2016, CivicScience, a polling outfit that originated at Carnegie Mellon University asked an open-ended question about holiday shopping that would have invited feel-good responses (such as the holiday music in the stores), and 43% of respondents said they didn’t like anything at all about the hunt for gifts.
Fast forward to 2021 and a shopping platform called Slickdeals found that even after the shopping was done, more than half of respondents to the question of what was most annoying about the holidays said it was wrapping those presents. At BetCarolina.com, the subject was tackled a little differently as the question pondered was, “Who are North Carolinians most struggling to buy gifts for?”
To determine that, BetCarolina.com took a quick holiday from North Carolina Sports betting updates and used Google Trends to conduct its own research. Using the “Topics” feature, BetCarolina.com found the top related topics and queries to “Christmas gift” for the last 90 days (Sept. 7-Dec. 7, 2023) and ranked the top five according to volume.
Who are North Carolinians Struggling to Shop For?
NC Boyfriends Are Tough to Shop For
The winner of the “most difficult person to buy a gift for” turned out to be “Boyfriend”. Boyfriend was followed by “Couple”, “Mom”, “Dad”, and “Wife”, in that order. Maybe that explains the growing popularity of gift cards – including the multi-brand kind – as a remedy for the angst of finding just the perfect gift in the right size and color.
Once North Carolina betting apps are available, you likely won't be placing wagers on gift shopping, but stay with BetCarolina.com for all of the best NC sportsbook promos as soon as they are available.
Author
Bill Ordine, senior journalist and columnist for BetCarolina.com, was a reporter and editor in news and sports for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Baltimore Sun for 25 years, and was a lead reporter on a team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News. Bill started reporting on casinos and gaming shortly after Atlantic City’s first gambling halls opened and wrote a syndicated column on travel to casino destinations for 10 years. He covered the World Series of Poker for a decade and his articles on gaming have appeared in many major U.S. newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald and others.
