Survey Spotlights What Dads Don’t Want This Father’s Day

If you want to please dad this Father’s Day, don’t buy him clothing. Or books. Or greeting cards.

And don’t opt for the oft-fallback option of personal care products, either.

Try a day outing, or, better still, stick with the tried-and-true of the past three months and stay at home instead.

That’s the finding of popular coupon code website Coupon Lawn, which recently paired up with the National Retail Federation to survey more than 1,000 American fathers about their most unwanted gifts on Father’s Day.

The survey calculated that Americans were expected to waste more than $5.2bn on unwanted items this Father’s Day.

Clothing is easily the main culprit, accounting for almost half of this wastage ($2.58bn).

The survey found that dads rate their sons as the worst gift-givers, just ahead of their own parents (27.7% and 27.1% respectively), with daughters viewed as the best and most thoughtful.

Dads were also pressed on how they wanted to spend Father’s Day, with 56% stating they preferred to stay at home, perhaps firing up the backyard barbeque: a definite majority clearly influenced by COVID-19.

A mere 6%, meanwhile, expressed a desire to check out a sporting event.

“What the survey suggests is that dads are shying away from material things at the moment, and are happiest to create memories with loved ones in the environment that is safest and most familiar in the present climate,” a CouponLawn spokesperson says.