Spending on Dad increasing; may hit record

Consumers say they will spend more than ever on Father’s Day this year as they shower dads with everything from power tools to trips to the ballpark, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insight and Analytics.

Consumers are expected to spend an average $125.92 for the holiday, up from last year’s $115.57. Total spending is expected to reach $14.3 billion, the highest in the survey’s 13-year history but still below this year’s Mother’s Day total of $21.4 billion.

“It’s encouraging to see consumers planning to splurge on dads,” said Matthew Shay, NRF President and CEO. “This increase in spending could be a good sign related to consumers’ willingness to spend more as we head into the second half of the year.”

According to the survey, consumers plan to spend $3.1 billion on special outings such as dinner, brunch or other types of a “fun activity/experience” (given by 47 percent). Clothing (given by 43 percent) and gift cards (given by 41 percent) are tied at a hair under $2 billion each while consumer electronics (given by 20 percent) follow at $1.7 billion.

As with Mother’s Day, greeting cards are the most commonly purchased gift at 65 percent but account for only $833 million of projected spending. Other popular gifts include personal care, automotive accessories, books, music, home improvement/gardening supplies and sporting goods.

The survey found 22 percent of shoppers will opt for a “gift of experience” such as tickets to a concert or a sporting event. Two in five Millennials are planning to give an experience, significantly higher than older generations.

“After seeing consumers splurge on moms and graduates earlier this year, it’s no surprise that dads are going to enjoy a few more gifts on Father’s Day,” Prosper principal analyst Pam Goodfellow said. “No matter what sales or promotions consumers will take advantage of on Father’s Day, they will make sure that the gift is a memorable one for dad.”

When searching for the perfect gift, 38 percent of consumers will head to department stores and 32 percent will shop online while 27 percent will shop at a discount store, 24 percent at a specialty store and 17 percent at a local small business. Among smartphone owners, 30 percent will use them to research gift ideas but only 16 percent will use them to make a purchase. Tablets are used more frequently both to research (32 percent) and buy (19 percent).

More than half of those surveyed plan to buy for their father or stepfather (53 percent), while others will shop for their husband (28 percent) or son (9 percent).

The survey of 7,200 consumers was conducted May 2-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.

The National Retail Federation is the world’s largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and Internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries.

Retail is the nation’s largest private sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs – 42 million working Americans.

Cell phones can have a negative effect at work

While technology helps workers stay connected while away from the office, in many cases it is causing them to disconnect while in the office, leading to a negative impact on productivity.

According to new CareerBuilder research, 1 in 5 employers (19 percent) think workers are productive less than five hours a day. When looking for a culprit, more than half of employers (55 percent) say that workers' mobile phones/texting are to blame.

The national survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder between Feb. 10 and March 17, 2016, and included a representative sample of 2,186 hiring managers and human resource professionals and 3,031 full-time U.S. workers in the private sector across industries and company sizes.

More than 8 in 10 workers (83 percent) have smartphones, and 82 percent of those with smartphones keep them within eye contact at work. And while only 10 percent of those with smartphones say it's decreasing their productivity at work, 2 in 3 (66 percent) say they use it (at least) several times a day while working.

"While we need to be connected to devices for work, we're also a click away from alluring distractions from our personal lives like social media and various other apps," said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. "The connectivity conundrum isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it needs to be managed. Have an open dialogue with employees about tech distractions. Acknowledge their existence and discuss challenges/solutions to keeping productivity up."

Wasting Time at Work
When asked to name the biggest productivity killers in the workplace, employers cited cell phones/texting, followed by the Internet and workplace gossip:

• Cell phone/texting: 55 percent
• The Internet: 41 percent
• Gossip: 39 percent
• Social media: 37 percent
• Co-workers dropping by: 27 percent
• Smoke breaks or sneak breaks: 27 percent
• Email: 26 percent
• Meetings: 24 percent
• Noisy co-workers: 20 percent
• Sitting in a cubicle: 9 percent

The majority of workers with smartphones (65 percent) do not have their work emails on their smartphones. Of those who access their smartphone during work for non-work use, they spend their time on these non-work related sites during work:

• Personal messaging: 65 percent
• Weather: 51 percent
• News: 44 percent
• Games: 24 percent
• Shopping: 24 percent
• Traffic: 12 percent
• Gossip: 7 percent
• Sales: 6 percent
• Adult: 4 percent
• Dating: 3 percent

The High Costs of Low Productivity
Three in four employers (75 percent) say two or more hours a day are lost in productivity because employees are distracted. Forty-three percent say at least three hours a day are lost. Productivity killers can lead to negative consequences for the organization, including:

• Compromised quality of work: 48 percent
• Lower morale because other workers have to pick up the slack: 38 percent
• Negative impact on boss/employee relationship: 28 percent
• Missed deadlines: 27 percent
• Loss in revenue: 26 percent
• Negative impact on client relationships: 20 percent

More than 3 in 4 employers (76 percent) have taken at least one step to mitigate productivity killers, such as blocking certain Internet sites (32 percent) and banning personal calls/cell phone use (26 percent). Other efforts to mitigate productivity killers include:

• Schedule lunch and break times: 24 percent
• Monitor emails and Internet usage: 19 percent
• Limit meetings: 17 percent
• Allow people to telecommute: 14 percent
• Have an open space layout instead of cubicles: 14 percent
• Restrict use of speakerphones if not in an office: 13 percent
• Increase height of cubicle walls to make it easier to concentrate: 8 percent

The Craziest Non-Work Activities Workers Have Done On the Job
Employers were also asked to reveal the most unusual or most memorable things they have caught an employee doing when they should have been working. Some examples included:

1. Employee was working on a scrapbook.
2. Employee was decorating a cubicle with chains of paper clips.
3. Employee brought her equipment for her embroidery business from home and was making items for a craft show to sell.
4. Employee was doing doughnuts in the parking lot in the snow.
5. Employee brought in a kitten she found outside and tried to keep it quiet within a large purse.
6. Employee was working on her child's school project that included uncooked macaroni noodles.
7. Employee was laying on a patient's bed talking to the patient while the patient sat in her wheelchair.
8. Employee was watching YouTube videos of people shoving marshmallows in their mouth.
9. Employee was doing some personal grooming in the break room.
10. Employee was searching on craigslist for dates.

Molly Crusen Bishop: The Heneberys were important in local history

Mathew and Mary Daniels Henebery were extraordinary citizens in Peoria’s history.

Mathew and Mary Daniels were both born in Ireland in 1834 and they helped make up the wealth and whiskey business in Peoria when it turned into the whiskey capitol of the world.

Mathew was educated in County Kilkenny and his parents brought him to the United States when he was 15 years old; they ultimately ended up in Peoria. Mary was brought to Peoria in 1848.

Peoria’s population went from a little over 1,100 in the early 1840s to almost 12,000 just a decade later. Immigrants came from all over the world and U.S. citizens came here from the eastern U.S. as the liquor distilling, railroads, and steamboats brought job opportunities and the chance for the American dream.

Mathew and Mary married in 1857 and they had 12 children. Together they were prominent and successful in business, family, and in charities. Matthew and Mary were extremely liberal with their financial donations for anything and everything for the build-up of the city of Peoria.  

They donated excessively to build the hospitals, Catholic charities, and even Saint Mary’s Cemetery on Sterling in West Peoria. In 1881 they joined Bishop John Lancaster Spalding in purchasing and developing a large tract of land on what was the outer western edge of the city at that time, exclusively for Catholics. There is a large circular plot known as the Heart section where Mr. and Mrs. Henebery and more than 32 members of the Henebery family are buried today.

Mathew rose to success quickly. He was made a superintendent of drays, which were horse- drawn trolleys with low side that held barrels of beer or liquor for transport. He later worked on the first telegraph line between Peoria and Chicago.

He joined the Brandamour Distillery Liquor Business, and eventually took over the wholesale end of the business. He was also one of the organizers and builders of the Great Eastern Distillery so famous in Peoria.

Mathew was part of the origination of the Peoria Stockyards, Peoria Packing and Provision Company, Peoria Opera House, and was the vice president and a director of the First National Bank. Mathew also served as a city Alderman, and later was a member of the Peoria School Board. He was also a member of the Creve Coeur Club.

Mathew died in 1907 and left his loving wife in charge of a trust worth over half a million dollars. She administered this trust in a way that showed her love and devotion to Matthew.

She continued their tradition together of helping the suffering poor in Peoria when she presented the Rev. Quinn of St. John’s Parish a school that was named the Matthew Henebery Memorial School as an honor to his character. Mary saw extreme poverty in this particular parish and the school was extremely beautiful. It was the top-of-the-line in education because she believed as her husband did that investing in the poor helped them lift up and in turn lifted the city up.

Mary passed in 1912 and left a legacy with her husband Mathew of how liberal financing in the poverty stricken areas of a city, as well as charity to hospitals, cemeteries, and other Catholic charities, set an example for those of us living in this fair city today.

Beat the heat at cooling stations

Temperatures are expected to be near or above the century mark this weekend and into next week, meaning dangerous situations because of the excessive heat.

There are cooling centers available to the public, the city of Peoria announced.

The lobby of the Peoria Police Department, 600 SW Adams Street, is open 24 hours. 

Also, city of Peoria Fire Stations are available until 10 p.m.  Please note that in the event of a Fire-related emergency, visitors to the station will be asked to step out while staff is on a call. 

A list of the Fire Station locations may be found at  www.peoriagov.org/fire-department/