Posted on 11/26/2011 6:52:32 PM PST by BunnySlippers
The holiday shopping season got off to a strong start on Black Friday, with retail sales up 7 percent over last year, according to the most recent survey. Now stores just have to keep buyers coming back without the promise of door-buster savings.
Buyers spent $11.4 billion at retail stores and malls, up nearly $1 billion from last year, according to a Saturday report from ShopperTrak. It was the largest amount ever spent on the day that marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and the biggest year-over-year increase since 2007. Chicago-based ShopperTrak gathers data from 25,000 outlets across the U.S., including individual stores and shopping centers.
The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. broke its Black Friday record for shoppers, thanks to a decision to open at midnight for the first time. Around 210,000 visitors came to the mall on Friday, up from 200,000 last year, according to mall spokeswoman Bridget Jewell.
Online shopping was strong as well, with a 24.3 percent increase in online spending on Black Friday, according to IBM, which tracks sales at 500 online retailers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“I think they are making stuff up.”
Yep. This is an election cycle. Obama routinely cooks the books and this is another example. I’d like to see alternate numbers for better proof.
“Preliminary sales data from ShopperTrak RCT Corp. show shoppers spent $10.66 billion when they hit the malls on the day after Thanksgiving - only 0.5 percent more than last year.”
That I can believe, but 7% more I can’t.
“I would suspect that like all the other numbers they post, they will be revised downward in the coming weeks with an explanation containing the word “unexpected”.”
Yep.
I didn't have any problem parking anywhere yesterday and lines were short. Maybe the "midnight shoppers" were tired out and had gone to bed by the time I hit the stores at 10am, but unless things were incredibly busy before dawn this black Friday looked worse than last year's.
Let’s see how sales do the rest of the month, probably these people got all of their shopping out of the way, and there will be much fewer sales the rest of the way.
Retailers are doing deep discounting, How will this play out for higher end retail?
Aren’t these early preliminary numbers wrong year after year after year?
All that I have seen and heard is that Black Friday was the worst ever. All the MSM wants is for its advertisers to be happy so obviously they want some momentum even by exaggerated numbers.
So I call BS on AP.
In my town it was just a murmur, no crowds rushing the stores, just another day, slightly more busy.
High sales does not equal high profits, if you darn near give the stuff away of course it’s going to sell. Let’s see what happens when the prices go up to normal and the less than crazy people who work decide whether to spend this year or not.
Black Friday is one day and this one was a day of HUGE markdowns to get the people out of the house and into the stores. The shopping season is about 30 days it will take until sometime after that to determine whether it was good or not.
Profitability will be an issue also. If retailers are forced, as I believe they will be, to take ever larger markdowns to move product, the result will be more retail layoffs and a continuing deterioration in the jobs market.
I was thinking about the past, when there were no parking spaces on Black Friday. Was that when everyone was using their credit and going into debt?
Shouldn’t there be a correction? Is it bad when people buy only what they can afford?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.