For years, Black Friday brawls and rampant materialism on the day after Thanksgiving have become a sort of twisted American celebration. However, each year the excitement continues to die down as people reject the Black Friday antics and instead do their shopping online or on other days. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, Black Friday attendance was down over 3%, from 58.7% last year to 55.1% this year.
The survey noted that the average shopper was expected to spend $380.95, which was down from $407.02 the previous year. According to the group’s estimates, sales slipped from $57.4 billion to $50.9 billion.
“A strengthening economy that changes consumers’ reliance on deep discounts, a highly competitive environment, early promotions, and the ability to shop 24/7 online all contributed to the shift witnessed this weekend,” NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement.
People have begun to change how they feel about Black Friday, with some deciding to support local businesses instead of large corporations, and others deciding to take the day off. As we reported earlier this month, outdoor and sporting goods store REI gave their employees a paid day off on Black Friday, urging them to spend a day out in nature.
“Fewer visits on both days reinforce the trend we’ve seen throughout the year, in which shoppers are researching products ahead of time, targeting their store visits, and arriving in-store with the intention of making a purchase. The decrease in shopper visits on Thanksgiving Day also lends itself to the social backlash against store openings on the holiday,” Kevin Kearns, ShopperTrak chief revenue officer said.
While the culture is changing and things are headed in the right direction, there are sadly still enough people out there who are willing to get into fights with their neighbors over electronic products that they don’t need.
Funny how that guy spins the drop in spending to a “strengthening economy” where people don’t need the deep discounts anymore. Funniest thing I’ve read all day. Must be angling for a job with the fed or the BLS. And it damn sure isn’t a sudden increase in intelligence or a drop in mindless consumerism. It also makes me wonder where they get their participation in Black Friday shopping stats from. We buy a Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving every year, so do I count as a ‘black Friday shopper’ since I bought SOMETHING at a store on that day?
The real answer is that the economy is in the shitter and has been for a long time. People aren’t out buying cheap shit they don’t need because they don’t have any money and are probably maxed on their credit cards, not because they realize how stupid all this is.
“We are attributing the 11% drop in sales to the improving economy.”
– Most Clueless CEO Ever
I’ll bet he came up through the marketing division. At least they have stopped blaming the weather. That is something.
So they took the reason for the season out of the season to please those who don’t celebrate it anyway.
And now they are seeing the results.
An unintended consequences sort of thing.
Went out on a date today, and we got to the part where we asked about our careers. She was an economics major who now works in mergers and acquisitions. That means realistically, the people who figure out how to cut thousands of jobs when companies merge. I rarely bring up economics on dates, but because she worked at the coal face so to speak, I couldn’t resist.
She mentioned that they’ve been busy nonstop, even having a “vacation moratorium” for a while. Companies have been downsizing, and cutting costs without pause since the recession hit. Big companies go for acquisitions to cut costs further through bigger economies of scale, and smaller companies to get out while their valuations are high. I quipped that the Fed is painting a rosy picture about the economy, but the underlying fundamentals just don’t match up, to which she agreed. So there’s confirmation for all you bears that the economy is shit.
Black Friday Total Sales Crash 10% (Despite Rise In Online Spend)
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/29/2015 17:00 -0500
We can hear the mainstream media now – “Great News Everyone!! The American consumer is back” – online sales on Black Friday rose 10% to $1.7 billion which ComScore says shows “strong spending.” The only problem is – which we suspect will be oddly missing from the mainstream narrative, as ShopperTrak reports total sales on Black Friday crashed 10% to $10.4 billion. While blame has been placed on early opening on Thanksgiving, that is false too since spending on that day also plunged 10%. So, the sales news is unequivocally bad – which is hardly surprising given the collapse in consumer confidence.
So to clarify… (via The Guardian)
Total sales in the US on Black Friday fell 10% to $10.4bn this year, down from $11.6bn in 2014, according to research firm ShopperTrak.
The decline in sales on the traditional busiest shopping day of the year has been blamed on shops opening the day before. But this year, sales on Thanksgiving also dropped, and by the same percentage, to $1.8bn.
A big reason for the decline is increased online shopping, as Americans hunt down deals on their smartphones, tablets and computers.
So, fewer customers ventured out for the traditional busiest shopping day of the year, while online retailers saw sales jump… (via Comscore)
Black Friday (November 27) followed with an even stronger spending day with $1.66 billion in desktop online sales, up 10 percent from Black Friday 2014.
“While the holiday season opened a little softer than anticipated, Thanksgiving and Black Friday both posted strong online spending totals that surpassed $1 billion on desktop computers and grew at the rate we had expected,” said comScore chairman emeritus Gian Fulgoni. “This is also the second straight year that Thanksgiving has established itself as one of the more important online buying days, while Black Friday continues to gain in importance online with each passing year. Looking ahead to Cyber Monday, we expect to see upwards of $2.5 billion in desktop spending as people return to their work computers after Thanksgiving weekend and use some of their down time to continue their holiday gift buying, but without other family members looking over their shoulders.”
So to clarify total sales collapsed by $1.2 billion (even as online sales rose by $150 million)… but everything will be awesome once Americans get back to work and start using their work computers to buy buy buy….
* * *
So, for those with difficulty with reading and math…
The National Retail Federation just held their post-Black Friday conference call to clarify evewrything…
*NRF: MANY NUMBERS THIS YEAR CAN’T BE COMPARED WITH PAST YEARS (unless the numbers are better in which case they’re awesome)
*NRF: METHODOLOGY OF THIS YEAR’S SURVEY CHANGED DRAMATICALLY (so we should ignore it?)
*NRF CHIEF ECONOMIST: THERE ARE SOME `SPEED BUMPS’ IN ECONOMY (weather?)
*RETAILERS STARTED PROMOTING HEAVILY DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN: NRF (bye bye margins)
*NATL RETAIL FEDERATION SAYS CONSUMER FUNDAMENTALS VERY STRONG (but you just said “speed bumps”)
*NRF: SLOWER JOB GROWTH DURING SUMMER COULD IMPACT SPENDING (but you just said fundamentals were very strong?)
I ventured out to a local shopping area on Saturday, more of a collection of stores without being a mall. Target is the anchor store. Pier 1, Bed Bath & Beyond, Payless shoes, some other worthless retailers.
The collection of crappy shoddy China rubbish was unresplendent in the retail windows and on store shelves. Garish colors, cheap plastic stuff, throwaway junk guaranteed to self destruct immediately after it’s purchased. Not much buying going on. I do really think that America is tired of paying for such poor quality goods and is on a buying strike. We’re sick of this crappy stuff.
A few people at Target. No lines. That store just reeks of cheapshit from Ganjing, it’s nasty. Toothpaste, cat food, shampoo and outta there. 15 minutes. I meant to get light bulbs but didn’t – the cheapest light bulb on the shelf was $5.95! Fuck that, I can get them for a dollar somewhere else.
Then the supermarket. No lines there either.
Dead zone. And this is in ‘booming’ Seattle. I did get hit up by a homeless guy wanting a quarter.