Plenty of people didn’t like what they saw when they opened gifts over the holidays.
Thirty-four percent of Americans will return gifts they received over the holiday season, a new study from personal finance site WalletHub has found. Out of those people, 68% of them said that they plan to return clothing and 23% will return electronics. One in five will return toys.
The survey, which was conducted between January 1 and January 6 with more than 500 respondents, also suggests that people doing the gift-giving aren’t so happy about those gifts, either. In fact, just 20% of respondents said that the credit card debt they took on over the holidays to give people gifts was actually worth it. And just 30% of respondents said that spending more over the holidays makes the season a bit better.
Since the study suggests millions of Americans have plans to return gifts, it’s perhaps no surprise that they also want retailers to be prepared. In its survey, WalletHub found that 46% of people believe retailers should accept returns up to three months after a purchase, so they have plenty of time to bring back their gifts. Nearly half of the respondents said that they would not want store credit and would instead prefer cash when they return a gift.
Either way, the findings seem clear: many Americans didn’t want to buy gifts over the holidays and take on additional debt and the people that received those gifts weren’t all that happy about receiving them.
Happy holidays, indeed.