• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, March 31, 2004

12,000 Miles of Cadbury Creme Eggs for Easter

The NRF 2004 Easter Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch for NRF, found that 75.6 percent of Americans plan to celebrate Easter. Those who will celebrate plan to spend an average of $107.17, up from $102.76 last year. In all, consumers are expected to spend $10.47 billion on Easter this year.

The average consumer plans to spend $20.85 on clothing, second only to food at $31.65. Americans also plan to spend $16.87 on gifts and $14.97 on candy. Flowers, decorations, and greeting cards see average spending of less than $10.00 each per person.

Though women's spending on Easter will be virtually unchanged from last year, spending by men is expected to jump more than 13 percent (13.48%) to $115.91. More men than women are expected to purchase flowers (41.1% vs. 30.8%) and the average man will spend more money on clothing than women ($21.93 vs. $20.00).

Easter candy will be the most-purchased holiday item, with 86.6 percent of consumers planning to purchase chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, marshmallow chicks and other traditional holiday merchandise. Also, four in five consumers plan to purchase food for Easter, 61.9 percent will buy gifts, 53.3 percent will buy greeting cards, and 42.2 percent will buy clothes.

Other Easter facts:

• Easter accounts for 13 percent of the dollar volume for holiday flower sales, according to the Society of American Florists. More than 9.1 million lilies, the most popular Easter flower, were sold for the 2002 holiday.
• According to the National Confectioners Assocation, forty-two percent of people rank the chocolate bunny as the number one "must-have" candy in an Easter basket.
• Easter is the fourth most-popular holiday for sending greeting cards, behind Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day, according to the Greeting Card Association.
• More than 90 million chocolate bunnies, 2 million marshmallow chicks per day, and 16 billion jelly beans will be produced for Easter, according to the National Confectioners Association.
• If you laid all the eggs made on the Cadbury Creme Egg plant end to end, they would stretch 12,000 miles.