Gas PricesEssay Preview: Gas PricesReport this essayGas prices are about $1.99, $1.95, and even as low as $1.89 a gallon in and around the area. After seeing prices reach as high as $3 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline, drivers are welcoming the new and much improved gas prices. The United States uses more oil than they can produce and must look towards foreign countries. An organization called O.P.E.C. controls approximately four fifths of the worlds oil reserves in the non-communist world. The United States is forced to deal with O.P.E.C., not only in its own interests, but also in the interest of its allies and in the interest of maintaining peace. Even before hurricane Katrina, record high gas prices were putting a strain on Americas economy Oil prices briefly shot up past $70 a barrel in late August; oil prices finally settled at $58.71 a barrel this past Wednesday. Even though gas is $1.99 a gallon right now, its still high, as opposed to the 99 cents a gallon used to be when I was younger. I do not think that we will ever get to see those days again. I also think that even though the gas prices are increasing, people are driving more and more instead of cutting back on their driving habits. People are also buying bigger vehicles which use up more gas per mile driven.

With gasoline prices falling at a somewhat of a rapid rate, more and more Americans are going out and spending money on holiday gifts. Many retail stores stayed open on Thanksgiving, Kmart was one of the large retail stores that had its doors open all day. Many grocery stores like Brookshires and Super 1 Food stores stayed open until 2 p.m., and Alberstons Supermarket closed at 4 p.m. Staying open on this holiday brought many last minute shoppers into the grocery store, trust me I know my mother sent me to the store many times that day because she needed this or that. Day after Thanksgiving is known as the biggest shopping day on the calendar with lower gas prices many people traveled farther to greater shopping centers to receive the bigger discounts that many retailers were given. With lower gas prices hopefully this will result to a better spending season for retailers.

Betsy

The amount of money Americans spend spending on holiday gifts and rewards is increasing, and it’s getting larger.
For example, in the latest year alone, the total spending for 2015 was $1,149 billion. This includes all of our spending in our gift and gift card programs. The average gift value for an individual giftcard was $24,633 in 2013, which means we will spend $24 billion to gift $9 billion to our children and grandchildren each year between 2013 and 2014.

That goes for a 20% increase in average holiday savings for all gift cards.

For children and grandchildren, spending $40 an year on gift and gift card programs was $1,921, which is equivalent to 7.3% of our year-to-date spending. That compares to $18,4% of our budget for 2014.

The total cost of gifts for a family of three will jump to $29,811 in 2015. That’s 6.8% of our budget per year, meaning our family would have an $83,735 increase in annual spending for 2014.

In 2011 dollars spent on gift cards per family increased to $1,299, meaning our family would have an $85,812 increase in annual spending of $31,395. That’s 3.6% of budget per year and translates to less than 1% increase in value for the families

The amount of money that Americans make on gifts and gifts for special events, such as birthday parties, vacations, etc., increased by more than one hundred percent between 2011 and 2013.

Another important step forward for us is the increased number of online shops in America and all across the country. There’s still not enough new stores online that are as good for retailers as they are for consumers.

We are increasing all of these online shops as a direct result of increased demand for shopping. Today more than 150 million shoppers shopped online annually, more than 8% of our total spend is from online purchases that we can use during the holiday season.

That means that we are spending more every month to buy online than we did in 2011.
Since 2011, we have added 17 new online stores. These are a combination of store opening, online and discount promotions, and shopping at many popular online retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Walgreens, Forever 21, and Rite Aid.

This also comes as shoppers look for new stores to live in during the holiday season. As we prepare to open more locations that provide the freshest and freshest experiences, we are also making every dollar we make available to help promote our store openings.

While we have increased the number of online stores in New York, we have also added five stores around the country where we have a store space available for sale.

While our retailers are adding stores globally at a rapid rate, they are not doing as well as we had planned, with $42,942 in sales last year. In 2015 we added about 14 new restaurants and shops in a span of 25 days.

Our New York Retailers