Mother's Day is just around the corner, but there is still plenty of time to get something special for the mom in your life. However, consumers may have to spend more money this year to get the same quality of gifts they purchased in previous years. Recent reports from the Federal Reserve imply that inflation may be cooling in the near future, however, that relief is not going to arrive fast enough for families preparing to celebrate this weekend.
Americans are spending less and less on gifts amid the current environment of uncertainty. New data from CivicScience shows that 39% of Americans don’t plan to spend anything on a Mother’s Day gift this year at all. That's a 5% increase from 2024.
In addition, the percentage of people who will be spending more than $50 is down from last year as well. Among those who are buying gifts, flowers lead the way, followed by taking mom out to dinner. Shoppers don’t realize that the majority of cut flowers sold in the United States are imported, many of them coming from South America.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 80% come from overseas with nearly 90% of those from South America. News Channel Three's Tori King spoke with the owner of My Little Flower Shop in Palm Springs who says this is one of their busiest times of the year. "We are really busy for Mother's Day, and it'll only get busier," said Gregory Goodman.
Goodman says florists have been hit hard by tariffs. "I just talked to my glass guy who told me that glassware that used to cost $5 is now going to be $15 wholesale glass. So we're going to try and eat as much as we can.
I mean, it's not easy. And then the tariffs going on for flowers. Wholesalers are already charging us tariff prices.
We get a lot of flowers from Holland, Ecuador, you know, everywhere overseas, Israel, even Japan," said Goodman. "So those aren't really coming right now. And we were at market today, and probably the market was maybe 10% full with people buying, which is really bad, and the product looks old, because they're not turning it over fast enough."
Goodman says he's now turned to working with local farms to get flowers, that way the store can avoid tariffs and not pass along costs to the customer. "So we go to the farms directly as much as possible here and try to buy local things," said Goodman. Another store, Julie's Hallmark Shop, is working to keep gifts affordable for Mother's Day.
"We do have a lot of customers who do come in especially about week to two weeks prior," said Ashley Elliott, a Manager at Julie's Hallmark Shop. "We try to find different products and be really conscientious of our customers wallets. The store sells thousands of gift items, including cards, candles, clothing, mugs and more.
Elliott says although they have been hit by the tariffs, they do work to find something in everyone's budget. "Sometimes they're on a tight budget, and that's when you recommend anything from just a 99 cent card, to maybe a $5.99 little plushie," said Elliott. "Sometimes it's a really big deal, they're willing to spend.
And we do try to just be conscientious of our customers. That's the number one thing that we're trying to do, is pay attention to them and their needs and budget."
