For more and more French people, the approach of the end of year celebrations is experienced as anxiety. 51% of them say they are indeed stressed about the holidays, according to an Ifop survey for Voyage Way, i.e. 4 points more than in 2021 and 12 points more than in 2020. Yes, in recent years , this anxiety could in part be linked to the Covid-19 crisis, this year, it is indeed inflation that is at the heart of the concerns.
In this context, the proportion of French people stressed by the holidays rises to 64% among low-income households. In financial difficulty, 18% of respondents will not give gifts to their loved ones (+8 points over one year), while the average budget allocated to this item of expenditure will be down by 5.4% (€386 on average ). As for the festivities, 71% of French people plan to reduce their expenses related to the Christmas meal.
Price up, purchasing power down
And this is not without playing on the morale of the French who, among those who will offer few or no gifts, are 43% to feel a sense of shame or guilt, according to another Ifop survey for Dons Solidaires. 27% of parents also fear not being able to serve a “good meal” to their family for Christmas (+5 points compared to 2019).
It must be said that the rise in the price of toys is not just a feeling (shared by 9 out of 10 French people), it is a reality. Games and toys are not spared by inflation, which is around 6% for this type of product. If 51% of respondents recognize that they will spend less on gifts this year, they are also 49% to want to move towards the occasion in this context.
Celebrations with a certain environmental impact
Often forced, sometimes chosen, sobriety threatens the magic of Christmas. For the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe), this is an opportunity to discuss a theme often ignored during the holiday season: ecology. In effect, “less than one in five French people think about ecology during the holidays. However, with gifts, packaging, meals, etc., the end-of-year celebrations have significant ecological impacts”indicates the organization which, for the first time, publishes a study concerning these impacts.
Thus, if “72% of French people attach importance to these festivals […] only 41% associate the end of year celebrations with a period of high environmental impact”. However, certain practices which would make it possible to reduce the ecological invoice of the festivals are still rather little accepted, notes Ademe. The agency reports that 57% of holiday greenhouse gas emissions come from gifts (for example, 39% from textile presents and 19% from toys), that 83% of meals are prepared in excessive quantity with high meat intake, or even that the reduction of light decorations is badly perceived.
The tree is also a textbook case for Ademe, knowing that it sells 6 million per year and that it represents 52% of the CO2 equivalent emissions of the decorations item. Opting for a local tree, labeled, in a pot (and therefore replantable) is the best solution, when possible. Ditto for waste and packaging. With +12% household waste, +20% glass bottles, +15% packaging and some 20,000 tons of gift wrap consumed each year, Ademe encourages better consideration of these criteria during the parties (and to use reusable gift wrapping, in fabric for example).
Finally, on the gift side, it is important to avoid waste, knowing that “27% of French people say they have received gifts that they never use“, i.e. 12 million useless gifts per year. Nearly a million of them would even be immediately put in the trash. Therefore, Ademe recommends favoring useful, more ecological, dematerialized gifts, in fewer numbers but of better quality, even second-hand. “The second-hand market is booming and more and more French people are using it throughout the year”, says the agency. And when we know that 70 to 80% of the ecological impact of a product is recorded during its manufacturing phase, this is an important lever for limiting pollution.
The second-hand toy is popular
And this translates into figures: 48% of parents plan to buy at least one second-hand game/toy for Christmas, according to a study by Junior City for Kingtoy, quoted by Capital. A second-hand toy market that the major internet platforms have clearly taken off, whether the usual eBay and Leboncoin, but also Vinted which – although specializing in clothing – is full of offers of toys and books of opportunity. It includes offers categorized by type (construction game, video game, puzzle, board game, etc.), which can be sorted by brand, price, state or geographical distance. Distance which is no longer as strong a brake as it was a few years ago with the impressive development of alternative delivery systems to La Poste, such as Mondial Relais or Colis Privé.
Some physical stores specializing in second-hand products have also developed a rich offer of games and toys. Their advantage? A certain expertise and a prior check, which makes it possible to ensure that the manual is present or that no part is missing. But what is striking is that the phenomenon affects the major brands in the sector, forced to reinvent themselves by the ever-increasing competition from the giants of online distribution. For them, second-hand is seen as a new Eldorado, especially since their customers are looking for more ethical consumption. This is how we see Joué Club, Oxybul and even King Toy offering second-hand toys and games.
Oxybul, for example, offers the IDTroc platform, which allows you to resell its toys to supply second-hand counters in shops. Kingtoy has, for its part, launched King Okaz, warehouses in which at least 30% of the sales area is dedicated to second-hand goods. Kingtoy, which buys back toys to stock its shelves, checking and repairing games if necessary before putting them back on sale. The seller is paid in vouchers. The approach of Joué Club is a little more timid, the second-hand purchase/sale periods still being limited in time. But there is no doubt that with enough stock and demand, this will become an activity in its own right for the brand.
In addition to these actors, there are associations and other municipalities that are committed to the social and solidarity economy. Between Emmaüs depots and toy exchanges, the sector never stops seeing its offer of second-hand products expand, and no longer only towards disadvantaged customers, far from it. The development of the toy sector of the REP (a system which engages the responsibility of producers) should, on its own, lead to the collection and the return to the market of 33,000 tonnes of games and toys in 2024.
A growing trend
If this movement is growing, it is not new and, in fact, studies last year already indicated that second-hand gifts would be very numerous at the foot of the trees. A Kantar survey for eBay estimated that 53% of French people were ready to offer a second-hand gift in December 2021, 64% among 16-24 year olds. At the time, Leboncoin had recorded a doubling of its traffic on the games and toys category in November, for a number of ads placed up by 42%.
Little by little, more sober behaviors are therefore becoming more commonplace and are favored by young people, who are generally more concerned about the climate problem, but also more weakened by inflation.