The Super Bowl pricing at local supermarkets and electronics stores is great if you're stocking up for a big game party, but even better if you don't care the least bit about the New York Giants or New England Patriots.Last year, according to Nielsen ratings, an estimated 162.9 million Americans watched part or all of the Green Bay Packers' victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, with the National Retail Federation estimating they spent $10.1 billion on the game. This year, the NRF says average spending will soar to $11 billion. The average Super Bowl-related spending is expected to jump from $59.33 per person last year to $63.87 for this year's festivities.Super Bowl sponsors would love a repeat performance and are shelling out to make it so. Sponsors including Anheuser-Busch InBev(BUD), Toyota(TM), GM(GM), Pepsico's(PEP) Frito-Lay and Teleflora are forking over $3.5 million per 30-second ad this year to jolt spending as retailers trim prices to lure shoppers before Super Bowl Sunday. In some cases it's already working. About 15% of fans surveyed are already planning to host Super Bowl parties. Another 27.1% are attending them. The cost of all the snacks, drinks, apparel and even new televisions -- which the NRF says 5.1 million Americans are expected to buy for the Super Bowl this year -- can pile up like layers in bean dip.All of that football-fueled spending is creating a much friendlier shopping experience for nonfans as well. We took a look at pregame Super Bowl spending and found savings everywhere from the nearest pizza place to the farthest airport. Even if consumers don't watch the game, their side can win in the end:
PizzaPapa John's(PZZA) is the NFL's official pizza sponsor, but it doesn't discriminate. The company estimates that Americans will eat 30 million slices of pizza on Super Bowl Sunday alone, and not all of it will be from its own kitchens -- although it sends at least 50% more pizzas out the door on Super Bowl Sunday than on any of the other Sundays on the calendar and is willing to give out a whole bunch of those pies for free. The pizza maker is running a Web site promotion that allows fans to guess the outcome of the Super Bowl coin toss. If the majority of voters are correct, those enrolled in the company's rewards program will get a free one-topping pie and two-liter Pepsi.The 750,000 pizzas Papa John's expects to move Super Bowl Sunday is still short of its competitors at Domino's(DPZ), which expects to sell 1.1 million to 1.2 million pizzas on game day at a 40% to 45% improvement over its typical Sunday output, according to Dominos. Yum Brands'(YUM) Pizza Hut, which took on Papa John's with pre-Super Bowl ads last year, also expects a 50% increase, roughly 1.2 million orders and 1.7 million pizzas cycling through its ovens from kickoff to the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Their standing Super Bowl deal knocks the price of a large pizza with any toppings down to $10.
FlightsEver fly on Super Bowl Sunday within an hour of kickoff? Absolutely fantastic. Every negative perception you have of airlines suddenly fades away. Poor legroom? Just stretch out into the empty seat next to you. Need flight attendant attention? You and the other 20 people on your flight will have plenty of it. Air traffic tends to descend to reasonable, almost Thanksgiving- and Christmas-Day-like levels of volume and comfort on Super Bowl Sunday, with airlines from Delta(DAL) to Virgin American ferrying fewer flyers. JetBlue(JBLU) isn't immune to the downtick, but gets its game face on by carrying the Super Bowl through DirecTV(DTV), offering $1 beer, wine and mixed drinks and tossing in bags of Buffalo-wing-flavored pretzels.
RestaurantsIf you think the friendly skies feel empty on Super Bowl Sunday, take a step into that restaurant everybody's been hyping up on Yelp or Chowhound for the last month.Restaurants that don't rely heavily on hot wings, oversized beers and televisions or undersized server uniforms tend to miss out on the Super Bowl party. Restaurant reservation site OpenTable(OPEN) says Super Bowl Sunday reservations fall 50% from just about any other Sunday on the calendar. It doesn't help that the game kicks off about a half-hour before most people are slated to sit down for their 7 p.m. reservations and ends sometime after the kitchen and waitstaff have glared the last straggling, coffee- or aperitif-nursing customers out the door. That fact alone, however, is no guarantee you'll get the table you want. Though there are still prime spots available for Feb. 5, it's still advisable to book immediately.
TelevisionsApparently, all those shoppers who sat around during the holiday season and let electronics sales fall 6%, according to NPD Group, were just waiting for the real deals. The National Retail Federation says 5.1% of Super Bowl viewers plan to take in this year's game on a new television. Even if consumers choose to catch up on Downton Abbey instead of watching the action in Indianapolis, they can still get some great deals.The price of an LCD high-definition television fell by an average of 6% in 2011, according to DisplaySearch. The market research group says those prices are just going to keep coming down in 2012 as LCD screens up to 50 inches fall below the $1,000 mark and screens larger than 60 inches go for $2,000 or less.Embattled electronics retailer Best Buy(BBY), for example, was offering a 32-inch Panasonic(PC) Viera 720p LCD panel for $299.99 (down from $449.99) and a 60-inch 1080p panel from Sharp for $1,199.99 (down from $1,699.99) during a big game sale last week.Sears(SHLD), meanwhile, didn't let impending store shutdowns stop it from putting all Sony(SNE) televisions on sale and offering free shipping on sets $799 and up. A 40-inch Sony 1080p LCD went out the door for $584.99. Plasma screens took a more precipitous price plunge, with a Panasonic Viera 50-inch 3D 1080p Plasma TV going for $1,239.99 (down from $2,000) and the 58-inch Samsung Touch of Color 1080p Plasma HDTV being sold for $1,299.99. >To follow the writer on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/notteham. >To submit a news tip, send an email to: tips@thestreet.com. RELATED STORIES: >>10 Songs You Won't Hear On All-Holiday Radio>>How Low Will Holiday TV Prices Go?>>10 Holiday Rentals For Your Crazy FamilyFollow TheStreet.com on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. >To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints
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