US Year-End Shopping Season Sales Driven by States with Low COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the United States, it has been found that states with low vaccination rates are driving sales during the year-end shopping season.

According to Mastercard's data on the 28th (local time), store sales in Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, and other states increased by more than 10% compared to the same period last year from November 1 to December 24. This contrasts with the 8.1% increase in store sales nationwide across the U.S.

These states are understood to have COVID-19 vaccination rates below 55%.

David Makoti, Vice President of retail consulting firm Kantar, explained, "Consumers in this region are not highly anxious about infection, so they went out shopping."

In the East, where vaccination rates are high, the increase in store sales was somewhat moderate. In New York State, where 72% of residents are fully vaccinated, store sales increased by only 5 to 6%. New York was particularly hard hit by the Omicron variant.

In Illinois, where the vaccination rate is only 64%, offline store sales increased by 9 to 10%.

There were also states such as Minnesota and New Mexico with high vaccination rates and sales growth rates exceeding 10%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.