How Swifties Spend

We can say that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour initially generated $1.2 billion of spending in Australian dollars ($766 million). For Japan the number was ¥34 billion (about $228 million), and in London, £300 million ($380 million).

But what do the huge numbers really mean?

One answer is omelettes.

Taylornomics

Moving from big totals to individuals, we can see that the money came from each Swifty spending approximately $1,279 on purchases that ranged from tickets, merchandise, food, and drinks, to transportation, hotel rooms, and restaurant meals.

Assuming Miami is typical, restaurants in the 53 cities where Taylor Swift performed 149 concerts, would have seen almost every category increase. In Miami, total restaurant transactions rose by 9.1% while patrons spent approximately 2.6% more. Rather than hard liquor, wine sales soared an extra 12%. However, the big surge, at 27.2%, came from omelettes.

Hourly restaurant sales demonstrate why omelettes were popular:

During those brunch hours, diners boosted the sale of omelettes and breakfast platters. Then, rising less but still impressive, they also ordered more burritos, sandwiches and wraps, bowls, and burgers. Meanwhile, they were less enthusiastic about seafood (-1.6%) and wings (-5.8%):

The Multiplier

With each Swifty spending close to $1,279, we just have a starting number. Here, an economist might cite the multiplied impact of spending because one person’s purchase becomes another’s income. Since people save and spend what they earn, we wind up with a ripple of spenders. Yes, the amounts become progressively smaller, and the spending might not remain in the local economy, but still, it adds more to the GDP than where it began. That means a multiplier of two would add $4 billion to the U.S. GDP if Swifties initially spent $2 billion (unless you join economists’ size of the mulitplier debate).

Our Bottom Line: Externalities

At this point, we can sum up the Eras Tour impact as a slew of externalities. Defined through the impact on an uninvolved third party–a side effect–Eras Tour externalities take us to money and beyond. With money, we have the ripple of the multiplier. But also, described by the Wall Street Journal, we had the nudge to stardom for her opening acts, a new norm for adding hours to show length, and the onset of music tourism as fans flew to far away venues. However, the externality that exceeded all others was girl power. Creating an energy that translated into friendship, confidence, and shared fun, the Taylor Swift phenomenon surely memorably impacted each young girl (and her mom).

Knowing that today the Eras Tour is ending, we can add meaning to its memory by thinking of omelettes and girl power.

My sources and more: Thanks to Toast for letting me move from the big numbers about the Eras Tour to specific spending. From there, the perfect complements were Holy Cross Magazine, WSJ, MSNBC, and Forbes.