How did Americans spend the $13 billion they saved on gas?

Phil Wahba

<p>U.S. retailers enjoyed their <a href="https://fortune.com/2015/01/14/nrf-holiday-sales/">best holiday</a> season in years.</p><div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">
<p>But it wasn&#8217;t so much the result of outstanding merchandising prowess as it was the benefit of gas prices falling to their lowest levels in five years, putting an extra $13 billion more in consumers&#8217; pockets.</p>
<p>Those unexpected extra billions didn&#8217;t all go to retailers—in fact less a third of the windfall did. U.S. consumers actually used a big chunk to drive more, go to the movies more and eat out more. All that explains why holiday season sales, despite a big unexpected boost, still came in a whisker below initial National Retail Federation forecasts. In other words, the cheap gas helped retailers salvage a season that started off slowly with customers showing restraint.</p>
<p>Customer Growth Partners, a retail consulting firm that tracks stores&#8217; sales, dug into the Department of Commerce&#8217;s numbers for November and <a href="http://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf">December</a> and estimated that the $13 billion in savings from cheap gas were used in the following manner:</p>
<ul>
<li>$4.9 billion more was spent on simply using more gas.</li>
<li>$1.8 billion more went to entertainment and services, such as movies, theme parks, content downloads and smartphone subscription/service fees.</li>
<li>$1.3 billion more was spent at restaurants, fast food and bars.</li>
<li>$1 billion more went to things like tobacco, beer, and other &#8220;sin&#8221; products.</li>
<li>$4 billion more went to the kind of items included in the NRF tally.</li>
</ul>
<p>Specifically:</p>
<ul>
<li>Food and beverage stores: $1.5 billion.</li>
<li>Home improvement: $1 billion.</li>
<li>Clothing $1 billion (this is a key category for department stores like <a href="https://fortune.com/company/j-c-penney/" target="_blank">J.C. Penney</a> and Macy&#8217;s).</li>
<li>Consumer electronics: $500 million.</li>
</ul>
<div></div>
<div>(U.S. shoppers had $1 billion more in disposable income than last year from other factors, and that helped areas like toys and sports.)</div>
<div></div>
<p><em>Learn more about the effects of lowered oil prices from Fortune&#8217;s video team:</em><br />
<div class="vodvideocontainer" style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="//fortune.com/videos/embed/259644fa-3c62-4e00-8a3e-6a28a7b15c0f" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></p></div>

Less than one-third of what consumers saved from cheaper gas went to retailers.

Where the billions saved from cheaper gas went

legacy

Retail

Where the billions saved from cheaper gas went | Fortune

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