Lawrence and Kansas City are already popular places to shop, but now the travel website Expedia has ranked these two communities among the nation's best places for holiday shopping. KPR's J. Schafer has more.
According to the National Retail Federation, 54 percent of consumers are planning to spend about the same amount of money as they did last year on holiday shopping. About 24-percent plan to spend more. In all, total spending in the U.S. is expected to exceed one trillion dollars.
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This month, Expedia released its ranking of the 25 best cities in America for holiday shopping. Both Kansas City and Lawrence made the list. How does Expedia come up with such a ranking? An analysis of social media. The company claims to have scoured more than three million social media posts, the majority of which took place on Twitter, and then homed in on conversations relating to local shops and holiday markets. Then, the company says it extracted the most buzz-worthy places to determine the "it" spots for holiday shopping. The ranking may not be entirely scientific, but retailers in Lawrence and Kansas City likely don't mind at all. They were the only communities in Kansas and Missouri to make Expedia's Top 25 list. I'm J. Schafer.