Hey, big spenders

Wealthy DFW 'burbs boast some of America's biggest holiday spenders

Christmas shopping, holiday shopping, holiday budgets

They're buying all the presents in Frisco.

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Santa and his elves get busier with every passing year, but sometimes even Kris Kringle has to use his black card to get the job done. And according to a new study by Wallethub, Santa's gonna be working overtime to fulfill the orders for residents in Dallas-Fort Worth this holiday season.

The personal finance experts have determined Frisco is the U.S. city with the No. 3 biggest holiday spending budget in 2023. Shoppers in the affluent Dallas suburb are expected to spend $3,546 this festive season. (It was bested only by No. 1 Palo Alto, California, with holiday budgets of $3,596; and No. 2 Bellevue, Washington, with holiday budgets of $3,576.)

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Frisco's estimated population of 219,587 had a median household income of $134,210.

This is Frisco's first time in the holiday shopping spotlight. The North Texas city ranked a much lower No. 37 in last year's report with an average spending budget of $2,150. Way to step it up.

The nearby North Texas city of Flower Mound is a returnee, but dropped two places from No. 3 last year into No. 5 this year. The average holiday budget for a Flower Mound household is $3,485.

Six other North Texas cities landed in this year's top 100 heftiest holiday budgets:

No. 22 – Allen ($2,964)
No. 30 – Plano ($2,566)
No. 56 – McKinney ($2,165)
No. 67 – Carrollton ($1,928)
No. 77 – Richardson ($1,809)
No. 99 – North Richland Hills ($1,706)

Fort Worth landed at No. 356 out of 558 U.S. cities with a budget of $1,013, while Dallas ranked No. 408 with an average holiday budge of $943.

Each year, WalletHub calculates the maximum holiday budget for over 550 U.S. cities "to help consumers avoid post-holiday regret," the website says. The study factors in income, age of the population, and other financial indicators such as debt-to-income ratio, monthly-income-to monthly-expenses ratio, and savings-to-monthly-expenses ratio.

Shoppers will have to keep a closer eye on their bank accounts this year while they search for the best gifts for their loved ones. Many consumers are running out of savings accumulated during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Yao Jin, an associate professor of supply chain management at Miami University.

To combat overspending, Jin suggests setting hard budgets based on personal financial circumstances and develop a list of "must haves" rather than "nice to haves."

"Holiday times are festive, and retailers know that festivities can boost mood and lead to a propensity to overspend," he said in the Wallethub report. "In fact, that is also why retailers tend to have more generous return policies to both alleviate concerns of unwanted gifts and buyer’s remorse. The key to avoiding holiday overspending is for consumers to take the emotions out of the decision, to the extent possible."

Other Texas cities that made it in the top 100 include:

No. 10 – The Woodlands ($3,316)
No. 14 – Sugar Land ($3,210)
No. 31 – Pearland ($2,566)
No. 34 – Missouri City ($2,517)
No. 44 – Cedar Park ($2,354)
No. 71 – Austin ($1,877)
No. 95 – League City ($1,733)

The report and its methodology can be found on wallethub.com.

holidays christmas shopping dallas fort worth frisco flower mound reports wallethub budgeting holiday shopping

Death Penalty

Tarrant County man gets death for murder of convenience store owner

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Turner

A man received the death penalty for his 2020 cold-blooded execution of a convenience store owner.

According to a release from the office of Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Karon Turner, 48, to death on November 20 for executing convenience store owner Anwar Ali during a robbery. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

On March 27, 2020, at around 6:15 am, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth. There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store.

Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money. And yet Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and shot him in the neck. Ali was discovered, dead in the bathroom, about an hour later.

Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag. Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes, and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado where U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. At the trial on November 20, as Bangs addressed the jury, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury but was handcuffed by Sheriff's deputies who removed him from the courtroom, while he yelled out "she lied."

Ali came to the United States from Pakistan decades ago to pursue the American dream. Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced. "Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."