Memorial Day is just around the corner.
Unfortunately, the usual ceremonies honoring veterans, weekend getaway, and grilling with family and friends on a three-day weekend will be different this year because of the coronavirus.
This year’s average spending on Memorial Day, as it was found that it’s 88% less compared to the average American spending in 2018 as seen in this report.
To understand deeper, we surveyed 1000 Americans to see how COVID-19 impacts the way U.S citizens enjoy their Memorial Day and why the average American only spends $56 for this year’s Memorial Day.
… and here’s what we found out:
Our Respondents
Most of them are aged between 30-39, representing 29.8% of the participants.
This is followed by 29.2% of the survey participants aged between 21-29 and then people aged between 40-49, which represented 17.3% of the 1,000 survey-takers.
It’s surprising that there are more survey participants aged 50 and over (17.9%) than participants aged 21 and below (5.8%).
Our respondents are composed of 61.3% female and 38.2% male. 0.5% of them didn’t indicate their gender by choice.
Average Spending on Memorial Day weekend Drops By 88%
According to the survey, 39.1% are willing to spend anywhere between $20 – $50 this Memorial day, representing the largest share of the survey-takers.
This is followed by 19.4% of the survey participants who would only spend $20 and lower. Roughly the same amount of survey participants or 19.0% of them are willing to spend between $51 – $100.
Only 9.9% of them are willing to spend between $101 – $220 on Memorial Day. Surprisingly, 12.6% of the survey participants would spend anything higher than $220 for this year’s Memorial Day amidst the global pandemic.
To calculate the actual average spending, we identified and excluded outliers from the data and used it to calculate the actual average spending, which is $56. Then we compare with the average spending on 2018 Memorial Day from this report.
The calculation is presented below
| Median | 50 |
| Mean | 286.0782748 |
| Q1 | 20 |
| Q2 | 50 |
| Q3 | 100 |
| IQR | 80 |
| Outliers lower bound | -100 |
| Outliers upper bound | 220 |
| Average spending | 56.13063063 |
Americans Are Stocking Up On Food On Memorial Day Weekend
It was found that 40.1% (largest share) of the survey-takers would rather spend their money to stock up on food on Memorial Day, followed by the spending of alcoholic beverages as a kind gesture to celebrate Memorial day, according to 18.9% of the survey-takers.
Only 7.4% of the Americans would spend their money on Clothing and accessories and only 4.1% would do so on electronic devices.
3.4% would spend their money on Memorial Day on housewares or kitchenware compared to 4.6% of the survey participants that would spend their money on gardening equipment.
Facial masks and toilet paper were not as popular in 2018 as they are now in 2020. Due to COVID-19, 2.3% of Americans would rather spend their money on facial masks while 2.5% prioritizes on stocking up on toilet paper.
Surprisingly enough, marijuana and cannabis products are gaining popularity in the past decade as seen in these data statistics.
Because of its effectiveness, 3.0% of Americans would spend their money on Marijuana/CBD products on Memorial Day while 5.8% of Americans would spend their money on self-care products instead.
Even though Memorial Day holiday marks the beginning of the U.S. summer travel season, only 7.8% of Americans will spend their money on gas this year because of coronavirus.
Americans Will Just Stay at Home on Memorial Day
48.97% of American survey-takers would rather stay near or at home and spend their time with the family compared to only 19.30% who would go out and spend it just like the other days.
Only 8.44% of the survey-takers would prefer camping and picnic now and only 6.27% would go to the beach. 3.38% would spend it somewhere else outdoors.
Personal services such as spa and salon were not as popular anymore and only 2.90% of the survey-takers would spend their Memorial Day here. Similarly, 2.53% of them would go mall shopping.
2.41% of Americans would spend and enjoy their Memorial Day sightseeing while 2.05% would go visit a musical or movie theatre.
Only 1.81% of them would visit historical places on Memorial Day amidst the global pandemic and 1.21% at professional sports events.
The least-preferred place to visit on Memorial Day is casino and nightclubs, with only about 0.72% of the survey participants who would consider spending Memorial Day there.
Will Americans Visit These Beaches On Memorial Day?
Due to the high risk of getting the virus, we anticipated that people would cancel or hold their travel plans. So, even though these beaches are open on Memorial Day, it will not attract as many travelers as it did last year.
82.68% of the participants would not visit any of the above mentioned during this time.
But 8.81% of them would go to beaches in New York, making it the most preferred beach by Americans on Memorial Day amidst the global pandemic.
3.37% of the survey-takers would visit beaches in New Jersey, making it the second most-preferred beach for Americans to go to on Memorial Day.
Only 2.56% of the survey participants would visit Delaware beaches and another 2.56% that would also visit Connecticut beaches.
How Americans Are Going To Protect Themselves on Memorial Day
Most of the participants or 18.02% of the participants would just stay at home to avoid contact with other people. 16.29% would still go out to celebrate but would avoid the crowd to keep them safe as they celebrate Memorial Day.
15.76% of Americans will still celebrate by keeping a safe distance from other people while 11.20% of them would celebrate safely by not interacting with strangers at all.
13.46% of participants will celebrate safely by not touching or performing any handshake with anyone.
14.03% of Americans, they would just bring facial masks and hand sanitizers while 11.24% would celebrate by avoiding places with high numbers of positive COVID-19 cases.
Methodology
To gather the data we need, we used MTurk with the goal to specifically reach at least 1,000 Americans to see how COVID-19 impacts the way U.S citizens spend their Memorial Day this year.
Those who live in the United States looking forward to celebrating Memorial Day were then qualified.
Also note that the survey results do not reflect or represent the writer’s opinions on the topic.
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