Holiday Shopping: Should You Start Now?

Christopher Ruebeck

Christopher Ruebeck, associate professor of economics, spoke to WLVR-FM, the Lehigh Valley’s NPR affiliate, about the pandemic’s impact on consumer spending and how the holiday shopping season may be affected.

“What we have seen is just a big change in people’s buying patterns,” said Ruebeck. “People are going on fewer trips, and so they’re spending money in different ways. It’s changing the type of demand that people have.”

Ruebeck said because of weather events and transportation backlogs all over the globe, goods are not as plentiful and are arriving more slowly.