Posted on 11/28/2015 6:00:43 AM PST by HomerBohn
Once upon a time, "Black Friday" was a major event in the United States. Yes, the mainstream media is still endlessly hyping it up, and major retailers are still rolling out their "incredible deals", but it appears that most Americans are tiring of this particular gimmick. Or perhaps it is just that U.S. consumers don't have as much discretionary income as they once did.
As you will see below, retail traffic this Black Friday was "much, much slower" than anticipated. And expectations were not great anyway - the number of shoppers was down last year, and it was being projected that there would be another decline in 2015. Yes, there were still a few fights on Black Friday, but mostly the "holiday" was marked by giant piles of unsold merchandise sitting around collecting dust.
The inventory to sales ratio in the U.S. has surged to levels not seen since the last recession, and so the truth is that most retailers were hoping for much more contrived chaos on Black Friday than we actually witnessed.
Personally, I wish that this whole phenomenon would just simply disappear, because it definitely doesn't bring out the best in the American people.
Who wants to see fellow citizens trampling one another and fighting with one another for cheaply made electronics that aren't even manufactured in this country anyway?
Black Friday was always a disgusting spectacle, and now it appear to be fading.
Let's start with Thanksgiving sales. More stores than ever are opening on Thanksgiving Day itself, and according to SunTrust that was a total "bust" this year...
We believe Thanksgiving shopping was a bust. We note that traffic seemed below last year both on- and off-mall.
Members of our team who went to the malls first had no problem finding parking or navigating stores. Crowds were tame and, with some exceptions there seemed to be more browsing than buying and less items purchased.
We heard many people discussing that deals were not that compelling compared to years past. Interestingly, many retailers closed at midnight- which contributed to a sharp decline in traffic shortly thereafter.
Off-mall, members of our team visited Walmart and Target for the openings and had no problem finding parking. Customers at both were focused on electronics. Lines, even early, were about half of what they were last year and quickly dissipated. The only off-mall big box retailer we visited with consistently long lines and customers making multiple item purchases was Kohl's -- where buys were focused on deals not available online.
Once Black Friday rolled around, things didn't get any better. For example, one analyst said that traffic at the Mall of America didn't "look much busier than an average Saturday morning"...
At the Mall of America in Minneapolis, the largest in the country, Edward Yruma, managing director at KeyBanc Capital Markets, said he's seeing less traffic than years past as well. He was there from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. last night and arrived again at 8 a.m. this morning.
"It doesn't look much busier than an average Saturday morning," said Yruma.
And in North Carolina, retailers saw "much less traffic than was anticipated"...
Jeff Simpson, a director at Deloitte Consulting LLP's retail practice, surveyed shopping centers in North Carolina and saw smaller crowds than expected for Black Friday.
"Across the board, much less traffic than was anticipated," he said. "Much, much slower."
Of course this wasn't much of a surprise. A global recession has already begun, and investors were dumping retail stocks ahead of Thanksgiving in anticipation of a horrible shopping season. The following comes from the New York Post...
Wall Street, fearful that consumers are running out of cash heading into the crucial Christmas retail season, are selling off retail stocks and everything else sensitive to consumer spending.
So why are consumers running out of cash?
Well, it is because the middle class is dying, poverty in America is explodingand the cost of living continues to soar.
Just look at what is happening to healthcare costs. It turns out that employees that work for medium and large companies in the U.S. are now paying more than double for health insurance than they were a decade ago...
Employees of midsize and large companies in 2015 paid an average of $4,700 for their health insurance, up from $2,001 in 2005, according to recent analysis from Aon Hewitt.
For much more on how the cost of living is absolutely crippling families all over this nation, please see my previous article entitled "Inflation Is Crushing The Middle Class".
Meanwhile, things continue to get worse around the rest of the globe as well. The number of unemployed job seekers just hit a brand new record high in France, Puerto Rico is on the verge of a major debt default, and on Friday there was an absolutely massive stock market decline in China...
In China, equities saw a significant sell off as a result of investigations by the Chinese securities regulatory body into several brokerages for breaking regulations. The Shanghai Composite closed 199 points, or 5.48 percent, lower; the Shenzhen Composite closed 6.1 percent lower, the Chinext was down 6.1 percent, and the CSI300 Index saw a decline of 5.38 percent.
Chinese brokerages took major hits, with Citic Securities, Founder Securities, and China Merchants closing 10.1, 10, and 9.98 percent lower after news broke that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has launched investigations into these firms to weed out short selling and speculation.
I hope that you enjoyed this Thanksgiving as much as you possibly could, because all of the underlying economic numbers are absolutely screaming that hard times are ahead.
This year, Americans are going to spend an average of $130 on "self-gifting" and more than $800 on the holiday season overall. People are spending money that they don't have on things that they don't need, and meanwhile very few of us are actively preparing for what promises to be a very challenging 2016.
So yes, let us enjoy the time that we have with our families, but let us also not be completely oblivious to the huge changes that are literally happening all around us.
Lucky you! Being in the middle if nowhere is when I’m happiest.
Obola still has no Christmas Tree in the White House.
Condoms and Mao symbols? Oh yes! Jesus? No way.
We go there quite a bit and enjoy it.... but it gets a little slow for me now and then.
I agree. It's now Black Thanksgiving (Target, Walmart, others), followed by Black Friday, followed by Black/Cyber Monday, "week long Black Friday" sales, etc. Basically lots of sales over many days leading up to Christmas, all massively hyped by the media to get people to buy a ton of crap they don't need. There's no actual day event anymore, it's just a non-stop "buy lots of stuff" media blitz that goes on for weeks in one big blur.
Have you seen Idiocracy?
8<)
We still have ads where a guy gets hit in the groin as a joke. How is this ok to anyone?
Apparently it is acceptable for a female to walk up to a male, and with no provocation whatsoever kick him in the privates..and we are supposed to chuckle at the clever subtlety contained therein...also, the snarky little tart in the State Farm commercial has been snarking for five years now...when is enough actually enough...?
Amen. I cannot stand the drug commercial side effects rants, followed immediately after by the predatory lawyer commercials. Leeches. Pure scum.
Never saw that one, but you’re correct. Ever other “group” has special protections and rights, except heterosexual white Christian males.
The Black Friday thing jumped the shark a long time ago.
It started out simple then Greed just took over.
The actual purpose was to have some real deal breakers to get people into the store to shop for other things.
It finally got to the point that shoppers only came in for the deal breakers then left and bought nothing else.
Then the retail idiots decided that they would open on Thanksgiving and do even more deals.
I haven’t hard the estimate of the National Retail Association but I am willing to be when the 4thQ comes out the Holiday Shopping period will be a huge bust. Can’t wait for Monday to hear the primary numbers.
I am in Central FL and went out around 11 on Friday morning. Purchased a Sonicare toothbrush for a great deal and a couple pairs of pants for my son at 1/2 off that he needed. Also a few necklaces for friends. No crowds and overall a good day to save some money on things I needs to buy anyway.
You got that right!
The fact is no one has any money any more, and the goods being sold by stores are crap.
All thanks to Obama and the rats’ policies since 2007.
Plus add also, folks are getting really sick and tired of the violence that now is part of the shopping “black Friday.”
I don't remember "Black Friday" growing up.
Sure, there were day after Thanksgiving sales, but nobody acted like they were a major cultural event or hallowed national tradition.
And calling the sales day "Black Friday" would have reminded oldsters too much of stock market crash.
The whole thing seems to have ramped up in the last 20 years or so, with a lot of media attention and the tech boom providing lots of goodies.
In fact, as Wikipedia notes, it's only since 2001 or so that the day after Thanksgiving really has been the busiest shopping day of the year.
Is the "decline" of Black Friday related to the War on Christmas?
I doubt it. First of all, even people who don't believe still give gifts.
And secondly, is the "true meaning of Christmas" really about buying stuff?
Is that the message you want to get out?
Maybe now it'll be called "Red Friday"
I'm not trying to get any message out. I merely posted the article which might be of some interest to FReepers.
In 1929 Black Friday meant people jumping out of windows due to the crash of the stock market.
Later, some journalist decided to call the big sales after Thanksgiving Black Friday which meant stores could get their profits in the plus column. Nowadays it means stores getting aced by the online sales giants.
Today, Black Friday is when some minorities get to buy things dirt cheap so they don't have to break out windows and steal.
No one saved anything under Kikuyu Care.
Probably thinking of shoppers driving cars rather than taking a bus.
I did know this.
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