November 28, 2003

Black Friday: Only 26 Shopping Days ‘Til Christmas

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If there was any doubt that Christmas shopping season was underway today, then you weren't out shopping at 5:00 AM like the rest of us. Just a brief selection of articles for you today below, as I recover from my triptophan overdose from yesterday. Here's an excerpt, followed by some fun story links:
    Heavy purchases of digital cameras, toys, clothes and more ignited the holiday shopping season over the weekend and bolstered projections for it to be best in five years.

    Items were snapped from shelves early as many stores opened their doors by 6 a.m. Friday for the official start of the holiday shopping season. The steepest discounts ran until noon.

    Sales for the first day of the season were $7.2 billion, up 5% from Black Friday last year, according to ShopperTrak. The day after Thanksgiving is dubbed Black Friday because many retailers see their balance sheets shift from red to black during the holiday shopping season.

    "It was a very pleasant surprise that demand was as strong as it was on Black Friday," says ShopperTrak retail consultant Michael Niemira, citing reports that full-priced merchandise did well. "That is really a vote of confidence by the consumer that the 2003 holiday season is likely to be one of the best in years."

    Consumers are loosening the grip on their wallets because of the improved economy, lower interest rates and an upswing in the stock market.

    Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, posted record sales on Friday, topping $1.5 billion at U.S. stores compared with $1.4 billion last year on Black Friday. Its top selling categories were home electronics, small appliances and toys, say officials at Wal-Mart, which has 3,500 stores in the USA.

    Visa USA, the nation's largest consumer payment system, reported total U.S. spending on Visa credit and debit cards for Friday and Saturday was $6.5 billion, up 12% vs. the same days last year.

    Most retailers will disclose results for the Thanksgiving weekend when sales totals for November are released on Thursday.

    Early bird shoppers had to arrive at stores before the doors opened. Many items — such as color TVs at Circuit City for $89-$120 and $29.87 DVD players and $498 HP Pavilion desktop computers at Wal-Mart — sold out in minutes.

    Holly Register, 49, of Suffolk, Va., arrived at Chesapeake Square mall here at 6:05 a.m. in search of CD players for two of her daughters. She was lucky enough to get the slim wall-mountable systems that she wanted on sale for $79.99 at RadioShack. "I've scratched them off my list," Register says of daughters Elena, 14, and Masha, 12.

    Lana Olson, however, took the risk of waiting for steeper discounts. The 53-year-old resident of Surry, Va., only bought gifts that had to be mailed soon to nieces and nephews.

    While Black Friday has been the fourth-busiest shopping day of the year, Monday is expected to be the busiest day for online retailers. Consumers returning to work will use high-speed connections at the office and search for what they could not find in stores.

    Online sales are expected to soar 42% during the holiday season to $12.2 billion, according to Forrester Research.



I was particularly appalled/interested in the Wal-Mart-woman-trampled story - although late-breaking news has it, she's done this before, so I'm holding back judgement.

- Arik

Posted by Arik Johnson at November 28, 2003 03:22 PM | TrackBack