Consumer Spend Trends: Mother’s Day Vs. Father’s Day

Just like asking parents to pick their favorite child, what son or daughter can choose between their doting mothers and supportive fathers? Well, when it comes to spending on each parent come Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, it seems like there’s a clear preference there at least.

According to a new Visa spending report, both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day weekends drove increases in spending among Visa cardholders — but not by any comparable means. While dad’s special day accounted for a 1.2 percent boost in spending, mom’s was responsible for a 4.2 percent jump over Mother’s Day weekend 2015. Predictably, the lion’s share of spend for mom went to florists, with brick-and-mortar businesses outearning their online counterparts several times over. For dad, the purchases were mostly in the specialty razor category, with digital media and boat rentals bringing up the next two spots.

Visa also monitored what, if any, effect location had on shoppers’ proclivities for spending on their parents, and the East Coast revealed itself, by and large, as the country’s collective momma’s boy. Baltimore saw the biggest weekend-specific spending increase for Mother’s Day at 10.6 percent above normal, while Pittsburgh (10 percent), Boston (8.6 percent), Philadelphia (8.4 percent) and New York City (8.2 percent) all posted strong numbers for mom. Not to be left out, though, Father’s Day spending ticked up the highest in Boston (7.2 percent), Tampa (5.7 percent), Orlando (5.6 percent) and Las Vegas (4.9 percent).

With spending increases like these, there’s more than enough opportunities on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day weekends to grab a portion of the cash flying around, which can reach as high as $20.7 billion on Mother’s Day alone, according to Statistic Brain. And while 36 percent of moms might say that they want something homemade, she’ll be just as happy knowing that money was spent on her behalf to shore up the flagging floral/restaurant/greeting card industries instead.