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As the Duchess of Cambridge goes into labor (finally after the press has been camping out in London in front of St Mary’s Hospital for more than two weeks now) the question that springs to mind is how much will the royal baby bring in to the country in terms of spin-offs.
According to estimates the royal baby, whatever the sex, will bring in an extra $370 million to the UK economy. Research that has been carried out by the Centre for Retail Research has predicted that almost 5 million consumers in the UK will be buying up everything and anything that is related to the future heir to the British throne.
- Retailers will net almost $6 million every day over the next few weeks on sales of royal paraphernalia.
- A staggering $94.6 million alone will be spent on alcohol. Any excuse for a goodbooze-up.
- Predictions show that there will be a surge in sales of champagne that will mean that an extra 3 million bottles of bubbly will be cracked open in the days following the announcement of the birth.
- Food will account for $38 million to celebrate in British street-party-and-barbeque style.
- $85 million will be spent on souvenirs.
- Toys will see a hike in sales to the value of $35 million.
- Books will bring in sales amounting to $60 million.
The Centre for Retail Research stated that "It is no great surprise that this type of feel good event provides retailers with a welcome boost, with consumer hype generating additional spending". But, it also went on to admit that the majority of those sales will be down to increased advertising that is taking place at the present time in the build-up to the birth of the baby and that has a cost.
The baby’s birth probably sometime today will bring in a needed boost to the British economy, but nowhere near the£2 billion that the royal wedding brought in. Just the sale of souvenirs such as flags, mugs and plates or pens was worth about £0.5 billion alone. But, on the downside of the story, the Confederation of British Industry estimated that there was a loss of $6 billion due to people downing tools or not going in to work in order to watch the wedding either in person or from the comfort of their own living rooms. So, the gains from the wedding were worth just a third of the losses. Will that be the same for the royal baby to come? Although, there are people that argue that the wedding and the baby will have an added attraction which will bring tourists into the country for years to come. That, however, is impossible to evaluate today.
Naturally, there will be those that say that the birth of the royal heir will be just another one added to the royals at Buck House that are living off the state. But, how true is that?
Just as some sort of comparison, Barack Obama costs the US a total of roughly $1.4 billion every year, which is twenty times more expensive than the entire British royal family. The British royal family costs the taxpayer about $60 million a year. Obama’s hefty bill is down to the fact that he has hundreds of Secret Service agents trailing behind him, plus a medical team and the maintaining of Air Force One. Rumor has it that the President dog has a dog-handler that costs the taxpayer $100, 000 a year. Now, the US should seriously think about trading that dog in for a royal corgi.
Originally posted: How Much is a Royal Baby Worth? [6]