Posted on 11/27/2011 10:50:46 AM PST by Rational Thought
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.
Bill Martin, who founded ShopperTrak, said he was surprised by the strong showing. He had expected the weak economy to dent consumer confidence and keep more shoppers out of the stores, or at least from spending much. Instead, he said, they responded to a blanket of promotions, from 60- and 70-percent off deals to door-buster savings on electronics.
(Excerpt) Read more at duke1.tbo.com ...
From what I've seen and witnessed in my area (the Northeast), sales are down approximately 15% versus last year, and traffic at the major malls appears to be way down.
Unless the online sales number has skyrocketed and/or my area is not representative of the rest of the country, it looks like the holiday shopping numbers are off to a dismal start.
They're clothing, their electronics, they're cheap appliances, they push like bad drugs... mostly assembled and manufactured by dirt cheap, Communist Chinese labor camps...Even the chicken treats dogs are substandard,toxic and poisonous..
Cheap labor at all costs.
Profits for a few, regardless of consequences.
You need to use 0bama cabinet accounting procedures and that should bring that -15% up to about +6%.
Er...Even the chicken treats dogs pushed onto Americans are substandard,toxic and poisonous..
Cheap labor at all costs.
Profits for a few, regardless of consequences.
>>From what I’ve seen and witnessed in my area (the Northeast), sales are down approximately 15% versus last year, and traffic at the major malls appears to be way down.<<
You came to that number ANECDOTALLY?
Nope...numbers I’ve viewed from a major retailer, thus far.....
>>Nope...numbers I’ve viewed from a major retailer, thus far.....<<
Link? Not questioning your statement, just curious...
I agree with you, yesterday I went to Stanford Mall, Palo Alto, CA. It was empty. Even on normal days, it is very difficult to get parking within 4-5 mins, yesterday, I just found parking right in front of Macy’s. Mall was empty. On Friday, I checked couple of stores, they were empty, there was more staff then customers.
My wife works at a Wal-Mart in a very small town. They have never seen so many people in their store before. Their registers were all constantly busy from 10pm Thur. to 1 am Fri. And the main office said their sales were down from last year by 15%. She says she and other managers think the main office is playing with the numbers. Employee bonuses are based on a store’s sales and a few other criteria. So who knows? Wal-Mart may be fudging the numbers?
Wal-Mart estimated that November sales fell 0.1 percent at its U.S. stores open at least a year - the forecast includes sales on Black Friday. At the same time, a survey by ShopperTrak estimated a 6 percent sales increase overall for the day, to $8.9 billion.
Wal-Mart’s results would mark the company’s first monthly same-store sales decline since April 1996. The retailer had expected same-store sales to be flat compared with the same period last year.
Wal-Mart and other major retailers will release final November sales reports on Thursday.
the above is from http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/25/news/companies/blackfriday_wmt_results/index.htm
Interesting — thanks!
These early numbers are later proven wrong every year.
Inflation is running 10% so sales must be up 17% or so to show a 7% gain. Don’t believe it from visual observation.
Yep. They're lying. Today, I saw above 16%. They'll make an adjustment after the propaganda to try to get people spending.
Even if true, which I do not believe at all, inflation is >7%, so there's a decrease in real spending. This group is worse than the government for lying, if that's possible.
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