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Thanksgiving shopping dents Black Friday's holiday spending
Source: Agencies |
November 26, 2012, Monday
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THANKSGIVING shopping on Thursday took a noticeable bite out of Black Friday's start to the holiday season, as the latest survey found retail sales in stores fell slightly from last year.
A report from retail technology company ShopperTrak estimated that consumers spent US$11.2 billion at stores across the United States. That is down 1.8 percent from last year's total.
This year's Friday results appear to have been tempered by hundreds of thousands of shoppers hitting sales on Thursday evening while still full of their Thanksgiving dinner. Retailers, including Sears, Target and Wal-Mart, got their deals rolling as early as 8pm on Thursday.
Online shopping also may have cut into the take at brick-and-mortar stores: IBM said online sales rose 17.4 percent on Thanksgiving and 20.7 percent on Black Friday, compared with 2011.
Yet ShopperTrak said retail foot traffic increased 3.5 percent to more than 307.67 million store visits, indicating at least some shoppers were browsing but not spending freely.
"Black Friday continues to be an important day in retail," ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin said. "This year, though, more retailers than last year began their doorbuster deals on Thursday, Thanksgiving itself. So while foot traffic did increase on Friday, those Thursday deals attracted some of the spending that's usually meant for Friday."
The company estimated that shopper foot traffic rose the most in the Midwest, up 12.9 percent compared with last year. Traffic rose the least, 7.6 percent, in the Northeast, parts of which are still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.
ShopperTrak had forecast Black Friday sales would grow 3.8 percent this year to US$11.4 billion.
While consumer confidence has been improving, many people are still worried about the slow economic recovery, high unemployment and whether a gridlocked Congress can avert tax increases and government spending cuts - the so-called "fiscal cliff" - set to occur automatically in January.
And some would-be shoppers said they weren't impressed with the discounts, or that there wasn't enough inventory of the big doorbusters.
"As far as deals, they weren't there," said Tammy Stempel, 48, of Gladstone, Oregon. "But businesses have to be successful, too. I'm hoping they extend the deals through December."
She was waiting in line outside an Ikea in Portland on Saturday to buy pots and pans for her 18-year-old daughter - as a hint that it was time to move out. Stemple and her husband went shopping at two Targets, Michaels and other stores on Friday, but failed to find any amazing deals, even on a flat-screen TV they wanted for themselves.
Target, Best Buy and other stores near the Ikea seemed to have few customers, and traffic at the nearby Lloyd Center Mall also was light, even for a normal weekend.
Many shoppers around the country were armed with iPads and smartphones, to check prices as well as buy.
Online auction and shopping site eBay reported more than 2.5 times the number of mobile transactions as last year.
Online retailers worked as hard as brick-and-mortar stores to draw customers, sending each of their subscribers an average of 5.9 promotional e-mails during the seven days through Black Friday. That's an all-time high, according to marketing software company Responsys.
A report from retail technology company ShopperTrak estimated that consumers spent US$11.2 billion at stores across the United States. That is down 1.8 percent from last year's total.
This year's Friday results appear to have been tempered by hundreds of thousands of shoppers hitting sales on Thursday evening while still full of their Thanksgiving dinner. Retailers, including Sears, Target and Wal-Mart, got their deals rolling as early as 8pm on Thursday.
Online shopping also may have cut into the take at brick-and-mortar stores: IBM said online sales rose 17.4 percent on Thanksgiving and 20.7 percent on Black Friday, compared with 2011.
Yet ShopperTrak said retail foot traffic increased 3.5 percent to more than 307.67 million store visits, indicating at least some shoppers were browsing but not spending freely.
"Black Friday continues to be an important day in retail," ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin said. "This year, though, more retailers than last year began their doorbuster deals on Thursday, Thanksgiving itself. So while foot traffic did increase on Friday, those Thursday deals attracted some of the spending that's usually meant for Friday."
The company estimated that shopper foot traffic rose the most in the Midwest, up 12.9 percent compared with last year. Traffic rose the least, 7.6 percent, in the Northeast, parts of which are still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.
ShopperTrak had forecast Black Friday sales would grow 3.8 percent this year to US$11.4 billion.
While consumer confidence has been improving, many people are still worried about the slow economic recovery, high unemployment and whether a gridlocked Congress can avert tax increases and government spending cuts - the so-called "fiscal cliff" - set to occur automatically in January.
And some would-be shoppers said they weren't impressed with the discounts, or that there wasn't enough inventory of the big doorbusters.
"As far as deals, they weren't there," said Tammy Stempel, 48, of Gladstone, Oregon. "But businesses have to be successful, too. I'm hoping they extend the deals through December."
She was waiting in line outside an Ikea in Portland on Saturday to buy pots and pans for her 18-year-old daughter - as a hint that it was time to move out. Stemple and her husband went shopping at two Targets, Michaels and other stores on Friday, but failed to find any amazing deals, even on a flat-screen TV they wanted for themselves.
Target, Best Buy and other stores near the Ikea seemed to have few customers, and traffic at the nearby Lloyd Center Mall also was light, even for a normal weekend.
Many shoppers around the country were armed with iPads and smartphones, to check prices as well as buy.
Online auction and shopping site eBay reported more than 2.5 times the number of mobile transactions as last year.
Online retailers worked as hard as brick-and-mortar stores to draw customers, sending each of their subscribers an average of 5.9 promotional e-mails during the seven days through Black Friday. That's an all-time high, according to marketing software company Responsys.
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