How can we measure our love for our mothers? Economists in Midland figured out how to do it in dollars.
This year’s Mother’s Day gift spending was about $32 billion in the United States.
According to an article from Northwood University, there are 89 million moms in the U.S., which means people spent an average of about $357 on gifts for them. Jim Hop, Entrepreneurship and Franchising Management chair at NU, said he wanted a fun way to recognize mothers.
“It was a way for us to say, ‘hey our mothers are important,’” Hop said. “How important are they? Well, we put dollars to it by how much we spend on them. It’s sort of a reminder that it shouldn’t just be once a year that we think about our moms and how important they are.”
The article said some people think Mother’s Day has become too commercialized—a Hallmark holiday that only exists to sell flowers, jewelry and cards. Hop said there is some truth to that, but the holiday can still mean more.
“A note that says, ‘I love you’ is probably more impactful than the $32 billion,” Hop said. “But we show it both with our voice and with our wallet, if you will.”
The idea for the article came from Tim Nash, Director of NU’s McNair Center. Hop said Nash saw a 1986 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where Carson said Mother’s Day spending was expected to add $6.5 billion to the U.S. economy.
If sales on Mother’s Day were a single company, Hop said that company would be the 99th largest by sales in the 2021 Fortune 500 list—two places behind Tesla. If that spending was from a country, it would have been the 101st largest economy in the world, he said.
According to the article, the number of phone calls also went up by 31% on Mother’s Day. Hop said he always makes sure to call his mom.
“I have four brothers, so it’s sort of a mini race to see who’s first to call her,” Hop said. “This year I won; I beat all my brothers to the punch. Just hearing the joy in her voice and hearing that calling her and recognizing her is meaningful to her makes it that much more important to make sure I don’t forget.”