Easter Spending Set to Break Records at $24.9 Billion

Easter spending is on track to break records this spring, with shoppers nationwide projected to drop $24.9 billion on the holiday, according to figures from the Florida Retail Federation and the National Retail Federation. That would clear the previous peak of $24 billion set in 2023 and signal that consumers, whatever their anxiety about the broader economy, still open their wallets for candy, brunch, and pastel-colored excess.

The NRF survey puts participation at 80 percent of consumers planning to celebrate in some form. Candy leads the list at 92 percent, followed by food at 90 percent, gifts at 64 percent, decorations at 53 percent, and clothing at 51 percent. The basket, in other words, is full.

More than half of shoppers, 55 percent, plan to do at least some of their Easter buying at discount stores. That’s good news for Target and Walmart, both of which have had their shelves stocked with plastic eggs, chocolate bunnies, and that particular variety of shredded cellophane grass that escapes the basket and turns up in carpet fibers until July.

Neither retailer has much time to monitor what’s moving through the Capitol in Tallahassee, though. That’s what their lobbying teams are for.

Target’s Tallahassee operation runs through in-house advocates Molly Cagle and Jessica Kraynak, with outside support from Carlecia Collins, Joe Salzverg, and Jason Unger at GrayRobinson. Walmart fields a larger crew through Corcoran Partners, with Mike Corcoran, Matt Blair, Jacqueline Corcoran, Jeff Hawes, Will Rodriguez, Carlos San Jose, and Andrea Tovar carrying the load alongside in-house lobbyist Bethany McAlister.

Easter’s position on the calendar is, famously, a moving target. The holiday is pegged to the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, a formula that pushes it around the spring calendar in ways that confound anyone trying to plan more than a few weeks out. This year it falls on April 5.

Keeping track of that kind of scheduling requires a reliable calendar app, and that particular corner of daily life is dominated by Google. The company powers one of the most widely used calendar platforms globally, which means it has a stake in everything from birthday reminders to movable feasts.

Google maintains a substantial presence in Tallahassee. Its in-house advocates include Amanda Ball, Taylor Ferguson, and Leah Popoff. Outside, the company works with Claudia Davant of Adams St. Advocates, Chris Moya of Jones Walker, Cissy Proctor of LSN Partners, and Bill Rubin and Heather Turnbull of Rubin Turnbull and Associates.

Not everyone schedules their Easter around Google, of course. Apple holds a significant share of the calendar market as well, and its famously bitten logo carries a certain thematic resonance for a holiday that traces its roots back to humanity’s first regrettable bite of forbidden fruit. Apple also runs a full lobbying operation in Florida, though the company leans heavily on established players in the state’s political consulting world to manage its Capitol presence.

The broader picture here is straightforward: major consumer-facing companies, the kind whose sales lines move every time a holiday approaches, keep active representation in state capitals because retail economics and regulatory decisions are not separate conversations. Sales tax rules, labor policy, data privacy legislation, and any number of other state-level decisions touch retailers and tech platforms in ways that show up on quarterly earnings calls.

Easter, from a pure retail standpoint, functions as a reliable spring demand event, smaller than Christmas but meaningful for grocers, candy manufacturers, clothing retailers, and the category managers who decide exactly how much of the candy aisle gets converted to pastel packaging in late February. A $24.9 billion national spending number is not a niche holiday story.

For retailers banking on strong April numbers, the timing this year works reasonably well. Easter on April 5 gives spring shoppers a clear focal point early in the month, with the bulk of discretionary spending concentrated in the final week of March and the first few days of April.