AP: Holiday spending expected to rise in Ohio
UC Economics Center researcher quoted in Associated Press story on expected sales growth
Ohio retailers can expect a happier holiday shopping season this year, reports the Associated Press.
The forecast, co-authored by the University of Cincinnati Economics Center and Focus on Ohio's Future — the research affiliate of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants — projects that Ohio shoppers are set to spend 0.8% more during the run-up to the holidays, making the total state sales for the 2019 holiday season more than $25.3 billion.
UC Economics Center researcher Megan Heare told the AP that sales figures for the 12 months ending in June 2019 show a 2.5% increase over the previous year, reflecting changing buying patterns among consumers in the state. The pattern shows that consumers are "spreading their purchases over the course of a year instead of this year's shorter holiday season."
Journalists across the country and around the world regularly invite experts at UC and its affiliated research centers to weigh in on the latest trends in business.
Related Stories
Local media highlight completion of Blood Cancer Healing Center fourth and fifth floors
March 16, 2026
Local media including WLWT and the Cincinnati Business Courier highlighted the opening of research laboratories and the UC Osher Wellness Suite and Learning Kitchen at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center’s Blood Cancer Healing Center.
Trial results support weekly buprenorphine treatment of opioid use disorder during pregnancy
March 16, 2026
Supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), researchers led by the University of Cincinnati's John Winhusen published clinical trial results in JAMA Internal Medicine that found administering weekly injectable extended-release buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder during pregnancy led to higher rates of abstinence from illicit opioids than buprenorphine given daily under the tongue, one of the standard methods of treatment.
UC Board of Trustees approves $12 million for building design phase for new welcome gateway
March 13, 2026
The UC Board of Trustees approved $12 million at its Feb. 24 meeting for the design phase of a new Welcome Gateway Building for Uptown campus.