Headlines

A Bit Less Green in the Till

Spending on St. Patrick’s Day looks to be down slightly, NRF survey finds.

Published

1 month ago

March 17, 2025

INSTORE Staff

Three lads celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO

St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Monday this year, which might put a damper on some celebrations. (Beware too much green beer/corned beef and cabbage; tomorrow’s a workday – and just a Tuesday at that!) That situation, combined with today’s turbulent economic times, may well be reflected in the somewhat muted spending plans consumers outlined for the March 17 holiday in a survey compiled by the National Retail Federation.

Here are some major findings from that effort:

61% plan to celebrate, down a percentage point from 2024. (Even those planning to wear green is down slightly, from 82% last year to 79% in ’25.)
Per-person spending is expected to total $43.64 per person, down from $44.40 last year
Total spending is expected at $7 billion, down from $7.2 billion last year.

The survey also asked where respondents said they planned to do their shopping for the holiday; here are the responses:

Grocery Store: 39%
Discount Store 27%
Bar/Restaurant 19%
Department Store 17%
Online 14%
Local/Small Business 11%
Specialty store (greeting card/gift store, etc.) 8%
Specialty Clothing Store 7%
Drug Store 6%
Other 2%
Catalog 1%

The 2025 survey drew responses from 8568 consumers aged 18-plus from January 31 through February 5 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.

Click here for more from the NRF survey.

INSTORE Staff

Since launching in 2002, INSTORE has won 89 international journalism awards for its publication and website. Contact INSTORE's editors at editor@instoremag.com.

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