The Florida Retail Federation is forecasting a holiday sales increase of three to three-and-a-half percent in the state, despite the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Irma.
The federation says it expects a strong performance due to a ten year low unemployment rate, a strong housing market and high consumer confidence. Gas prices are also coming back down.
“Hurricane Irma hit our state extremely hard, particularly in these areas, and we factored in this impact in our forecast, but we feel the overall strength of our economy and the incredible recovery efforts that have taken place will help lessen the impact on retail sales this holiday season,” said FRF President/CEO Scott Shalley in an email to WJCT News.
Consumers are expected to spend an average of $967 on gifts, according to FRF’s partners at the National Retail Federation, which would be up from 2016’s average of $935.
Another contributing factor is Florida tourism with FRF citing an influx of more than 100 million tourists, most of which will buy something while they’re here, according to the forecast.
Florida’s retail industry has more than 270,000 businesses which employ 2.7 million Floridians, according to FRF.
Just in time for the holiday shopping season, gas prices are dropping after a recent spike.
Florida gas prices declined an average of three cents during the last four days, with the downward trend expected to continue.
"Gas prices should decline five to ten cents through Thanksgiving weekend," said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA - The Auto Club Group. "Although gasoline demand will be high this week, it will be cheaper for gas stations to purchase their fuel than a week ago. Since retailers profit more off of concessions in their convenience stores than the sale of gasoline, they will be more likely to lower gas prices as a way to attract passing motorists.
The average price of for a gallon of regular unleaded Sunday in Florida was $2.49. That compares to $2.52 a week ago and $2.71 on September 17. The September spike was caused by refinery outages and demand caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Here in Jacksonville the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded was $2.44 Monday morning, according to GasBuddy.com.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
