Deloitte survey: Green gifts could be big locally

(Photo of folks playing with Nintendo Wii: Tom Herde/Globe staff)

New Englanders are more willing to pay extra for green gifts this holiday season and they are more likely to shop online than consumers nationwide, according to an annual holiday survey from Deloitte LLP.

Deloitte, an accounting and professional services firm headquartered in New York, said it conducted an online survey that polled 13,276 US consumers, and it also broke out how people in New England compared to the nation as a whole.

Nationally, the top gifts that those polled said that they were likely to buy include Nintendo's Wii gaming system (photo above), iPods (right) from Apple Inc., and Guitar Hero, a video game whose software was developed by Harmonix Music Systems of Cambridge. Game consoles from Sony and Microsoft Corp. should also fare well.

According to Deloitte's survey, 49 percent of New England consumers, compared with 44 percent nationally, are willing to pay extra for green gifts this holiday season and, additionally, 47 percent of New Englanders, versus 38 percent of national consumers, say they will use fewer plastic bags from supermarkets and other stores this year.

And while a record 77 percent of New England consumers will do some of their holiday shopping online, only 71 percent of national consumers will do the same, Deloitte said.

Nearly 75 percent of New Englanders say they are likely to buy gift cards this holiday season; 53 percent said they expect to buy clothing, and 35 percent said they expect to buy games and toys, the Deloitte survey found.

Commenting on the national results of the survey, Stacy Janiak, Deloitte's US Retail leader, said in a statement, "Our survey shows that a significant number of people will pay more for eco-friendly products, which tells us that this issue is becoming a key factor in consumers' purchasing decisions."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)