Americans are always finding new ways to spend their free time and money. In good economic times, people generally have more discretionary income to spend on leisure and recreation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in Consumer Expenditures in 2002 that in 2002 Americans spent an average of $2,079 on entertainment, slightly more than the $1,953 that was spent in 2001. (See Table 2.1.) T…
The explosion of digital technology has changed the consumer electronics industry, making possible a wide array of new products and blurring the difference between information management and entertainment equipment. According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), an industry advocacy group comprising more than 1,700 member companies, the wholesale value of electronics products sold to Ame…
Many Americans devote part of their leisure time to pursuits related to personal health and fitness. Participants in physical fitness activities or in sports such as softball or skiing often purchase highly specialized apparel and equipment. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) in Shoppers Bought More, Spent Less on Sports Apparel in 2003 (May 2004), retail sales of all…
Travel and tourism is the largest services export industry in the United States. It is also the third largest retail sales category and one of America's largest employers. An estimated 7.2 million U.S. residents worked in the travel and tourism industry in 2002, resulting in $157 billion in payroll. The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) calculated that one out of every eighteen p…
Americans have always enjoyed such amusement parks and attractions as Busch Gardens, Disneyland, and Six Flags. Big amusement parks and theme parks featuring children's rides, roller coasters, and water slides have existed in the United States since the early years of the twentieth century. According to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, in 2003 the approximat…
Buying and playing with toys is a popular activity in the United States. In the past, the toy industry considered children from birth to age fourteen as its prime audience. Today, the prime toy-purchasing years are birth to ten years of age. While some toys may sell very well one year and then disappear the next, other toys sell consistently from year to year. These enduringly popular best-sellers…
According to the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), consumers spent about $37.9 billion to purchase books in 2003, a figure that was projected to rise 2.9% to $39 billion in 2004. Of this total, retail sales of adult trade books accounted for an estimated $8.4 billion in 2003, which would rise to $8.5 billion in 2004, while juvenile trade book sales of $3.4 billion in 2003 were expected to increase…
In 2003 Americans spent more on digital videodiscs (DVDs) than they did on compact discs (CDs) for the first time ever. According to the "2003 Consumer Profile" released by the Recording Industry Association of America, manufacturers shipped sound recordings with a retail value of $11.9 billion during the year, down from $12.6 billion in 2002 and $13.7 billion in 2001. (See Table 4.9…
Many Americans enjoy participating in recreation that involves wildlife. Fishing and hunting are some of the most popular forms of recreation in the United States, and increasing numbers of people enjoy watching, photographing, and feeding wild animals and birds. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, more than eighty-two million U.S. residents fished, hunted, and observed wildlife in 20…
At the end of the 1990s, collectibles, including limited-edition plates and figurines, accounted for $5.5 billion of the $20.9 billion giftware market. This category was growing at an annual rate of more than 10% and represented 26% of total giftware sales. Industry observers credited the "cocooning trend," with its emphasis on the importance of the home as a place of leisure and ent…
One popular way that Americans purchase collectible items is via online auctions. The leading auction Web site, eBay.com, has grown rapidly since it was founded in 1995. By mid-2004 eBay had sixty-five million registered users in the United States, along with thirty million more internationally. Of the ninety-five million users who were registered, 41.2 million had bid, bought, or listed an item f…
Weekend daredevils may encounter a variety of insurance problems, depending on the pastime and the danger involved. People who participate in extreme sports and high-risk recreational pursuits may find themselves forced to pay high rates for insurance coverage or be unable to get such coverage at all. When approached by persons who participate in risky activities, insurance companies may decline t…
A survey conducted by a Philadelphia-based online dating service in 2000 compared the cost of a date—dinner and a movie—in various cities in the United States. New York was the most expensive city with an average cost of $135, followed by Chicago ($128) and San Francisco ($124). Las Vegas was the least expensive of the fourteen major cities ranked, with dinner and a movie averaging j…
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