So Much For A "Record Black Friday": November Retail Sales Miss Big

Zero Hedge ^ | 12/13/2011 | Tyler Durden

[SeekAndFind]

Earlier we just got confirmation out of Best Buy that one can not, as expected, offset negative margins with near-infinite volume (as the stock tumbles). Now we get advance retail sales proving that all speculation about a record Black Friday was just that. Oh, and a lie. In short - everything missed. Advance retails sales in November (including Thanksgiving) came at 0.2%, on expectations of 0.6%, and down from a revised 0.6%. Retail sales less autos was 0.2%, half of the expected 0.4%, while ex Auto and Gas also printed at 0.2%, also missing big. So... where did all the money go, aside from generating even more negative profits for retailers, who now have to eat a huge cash hole in addition to everything? Or were speculations that Black Friday was a bust, spot on? Expect lower Q4 GDP revisions based on this data.

From the report:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $399.3 billion, an increase of 0.2 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month and 6.7 percent (±0.7%) above November 2010. Total sales for the September through November 2011 period were up 7.4 percent (±0.5%) from the same period a year ago. The September to October 2011 percent change was revised from +1.1 percent (±0.3) to +1.3 percent (±0.3%).

 

Retail trade sales were up 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from October 2011, and 6.8 percent (±0.7%) above last year. Nonstore retailers sales were up 13.9 percent (±2.3%) from November 2010 and gasoline stations sales were up 12.9 percent (±1.7%) from last year.

[Sacajaweau]

So we didn't live up to their "expectations". Too funny...

Apparently the same math method used for Climate change.

[HIDEK6]

Hint: Stop calling it "Black" Friday.

Too many negative connotations.

Go back to calling it, "The Day After Thanksgiving."

[AU72]

When Obama loses next November I predict a record Christmas buying season.

[null and void]

The record is perfect. 100% of the economics reports under obama were announced as stellar improvements with much ballyhoo and enthusiasm, and quietly downgraded within days or weeks.

100%. Every single time. All of them.

I think I'm beginning to see a trend here.

But maybe it's just me...

[null and void]

I’m not betting he’ll lose. That would require an honest election, or for that matter, any election.

National emergency, dontcha know?

[treetopsandroofs]

A couple of months ago, I noticed Big Media referring to a good stock market day as being “in the green” and figured the fix had already been in to rename Black Friday to Green Friday.

Maybe they had intended to after the sales figures backed up their projections.

[wjcsux]

later

[Psalm 144]

The customary ‘unexpected’. We may even have moved from customary into formal ritual at this point.

[bagman]

Since the first Bush presidency, I have noticed that Christmas retail seasons are always touted to be below expectations when a Republican (or is it simply when a Bush) is president, while they always exceed expectations when a Demoncrat is president.

No, folks, no bias here.

[HIDEK6]

Yeah. Anytime I hear Black Friday, I think of the 1929 crash.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Hint: Stop calling it “Black” Friday.

I’m surprised the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world have not made an issue out of it yet...

[j_tull]

The radio news readers were soiling themselves with glee over the record setting Black Friday as I was driving to a suburban Boston Costco the next day. This particular Costco is at the end of a very busy retail boulivard. There were cops on overtime at every intersection, standing around. As we went in to the store, I told my wife that I had NEVER seen any Costco that empty on a weekend afternoon in my 25 years of shopping there.

[Sacajaweau]

Just like the unemployment reports. Definitely a pattern....of deception.

[slumber1]

.....one can not, as expected, offset negative margins with near-infinite volume...

Ah yes, the old 'we lose a little on each one but we'll make it up in volume' gambit

[dfwgator]

Yeah. Anytime I hear Black Friday, I think of the 1929 crash.

I think of the Steely Dan song.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

At least one retailer that I know about missed it’s Black Friday target, but made it up over the five day (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) shopping weekend by doing unexpectedly well online.

[bert]

-——but not for price changes,-——

That is the meat and potatoes of the report.

The sales were greater because of inflation. the prices of stuff rose, not the volume of goods sold

[Mycroft Holmes]

Hint: Stop calling it "Black" Friday.

In retail lore, it's the day that the books (store accounts) turn from red to black.

[HIDEK6]

I know that.

It's also the day the stock market crashed in 1929.