Self-improvement Santa helps you give perfect gift
By Bruce Horovitz
USA Today
Call it a Christmas of self-improvement for everyone on Christina Borra's shopping list. She's buying a day-spa treatment for Mom, organic toys for her pets and for herself — breast implants.
"You can't fix the bigger things in the world," says Borra, a registered nurse from St. Augustine, Fla. "But you can fix the things you have control over."
There's something new under the tree for gift-givers and gift-getters this holiday season: stuff that helps folks de-stress, decompress or even defy the aging process. Shoppers are asking: What can I buy for Mom — and myself — that will make us feel younger, healthier and maybe even melt three decades of coffee stains off our teeth?
Most retailers are projecting a bang-up Christmas. Holiday sales could top $217.4 billion, up 5.7 percent from last year, projects the National Retail Federation. But amid this optimism, there's a strong undercurrent of consumer interest that's moving away from stuff-for-stuff's-sake and toward stuff that makes recipients feel healthy, think clearly or even appear ageless.
Stuff that makes us look, feel or even smile better is hot this holiday. Even if it doesn't fit in a Christmas stocking.
"There is a formidable shift in how people live their lives — and how they look at their lives," says George Whalin, chief executive of Retail Management Consultants. "The same gal who buys a salad at McDonald's at noon probably owns a treadmill and takes yoga lessons."
Executives say this is an extremely lucrative niche. But it's not necessarily found in the fine jewelry section. It's about $195 yoga equipment. It's about tooth-whitening products that can cost more than a fancy dinner. It's about luxury spas with equally luxurious price tags.
Borra's 70-year-old mom, who is recovering from major surgery, is game for the $350 spa treatment gift. And Borra, who is recovering from the overwork and stress of 12-hour workdays in an emergency room, will have her breasts augmented just two weeks before Christmas.
One of the hot sellers this holiday at Costco is a $39 gift basket that's loaded with creams, lotions and moisturizers. "We'll sell every one of these baskets that we put out there," says CEO Jim Sinegal.
The story's the same for the antithesis of Costco: the pages of the Neiman Marcus Christmas book.
Among this year's hot sellers: a $132 Juicy Couture gym bag, a $135 tube of Natura Bisse Inhibit wrinkle-fighting cream; and a $195 yoga kit with a Neiman Marcus-engraved mat, bag and strap.
Don't look for DVDs and sweaters under Wendy Queal's Christmas tree. The 34-year-old resident of Hutchinson, Kan., only wants stuff to make her feel better.
She's asking her husband for certificates for two massages and a facial. And last year she asked her grandmother for tanning certificates. "Winter is depressing in Kansas," she explains. "Sometimes we don't see the sun for a month."
Fitness equipment sales topped $4.3 billion last year — up more than 10 percent from the year before. As boomers age, "Many distrust the potential of medicine to keep them healthy but are very concerned about staying alive and well," says Thomas Doyle, vice president of research at the National Sporting Goods Association.
They also want to look better. It's no accident that next week, Procter & Gamble will introduce Crest Whitestrips Premium, which whiten teeth in half the time of regular Whitestrips — one week instead of two. A kit costs $35.
Borra, the nurse who is getting saline breast implants, says she's not interested in whiter teeth. Her Christmas gift to herself is about a far different kind of self-esteem.
The surgery, scheduled for Dec. 9, will cost $4,000. She's worked four jobs to pay for it.
"It's not out of desperation," she says. "It's about stepping into me."
When the surgery is over, Borra says she has plans for another splurge: a trip to Victoria's Secret.
