Best and Worst Holiday Gifts of 2016

According to a recent survey from online retailer Rakuten, 3 out of 4 Americans don’t like the gifts they receive for the holidays. So in November 2016, we decided to poll shoppers about their favorite – and least favorite – gifts for the 2016 holiday season. Over 8,000 responses were collected from participants at popular shopping destinations like Bloomingdale’s, Westfield malls and Whole Foods.

We turned the findings of our massive holiday gifts survey into a Best and Worst Holiday Gifts of 2016 infographic:

While it didn’t come as a surprise that the majority (36%) of millennials voted electronics as their gift of choice, gift cards turned out to be the poll’s biggest winners. Gift cards often get a bad rap for being an impersonal, tacky gift, but the majority of respondents over 30 years old chose them as their favorite holiday gift to receive. The biggest plastic fans were seniors, with 44% of shoppers over 50 saying they preferred to receive gift cards over any other gift. So the next time someone says gift cards are a lazy cop out, you can (politely) inform them that only 1 out of 4 people like the gifts they typically receive, but gift cards have a 34% approval rating.

The worst gift was also pretty unanimous: food and drink. We may be a foodie nation, but it looks like we don’t trust others to make the right food and drink choices for us. Respondents across all age groups – with the exception of Gen Z consumers – voted food/drink as the worst gift. The youngest respondents – 36% of respondents under 21 – chose housewares as the worst offenders. Perhaps it’s difficult to appreciate the wonders of a KitchenAid stand mixer when you’re still living with mom.

So rather than stressing out over the perfect, personal holiday gift, just give your loved ones the only gift they really want: the gift of choice.

Source: http://time.com/3594482/holiday-shopping-black-friday-thanksgiving-christmas-gifts/
Poll results were collected through our phone charging stations’ new Quickpoll™ feature which surveys kiosk users through our digital touchscreen interface before they start their free phone charging session.
34% of our holiday gifts survey participants over the age of 30 voted gift cards as their favorite gift.