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.

[bray]

The entire gummit has turned into a Politboro.

Pray for America

[FightThePower!]

How about this? Unless you have the money to live for 5 years without working, don’t buy much for Christmas.

[ichabod1]

It was an inside baseball bit of black humor that the media got ahold of and it became ubiquitous. I bet they do the green Friday thing. Any chance to speak the name of the new color that has replaced red is taken.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Particularly in the case of Best Buy, but relevant to other retailers as well (especially Target), the apparent success of Black Friday was based on huge numbers of customers and initial sales figures. The problem was that these customers were only buying the very aggressively marked-down and heavily promoted items, and weren't buying any of the other, full-price, stuff that the loss leader promo items were supposed to lure them to. The margin on what they sold was non-existent.

A lot of these stores got free publicity as local news crews covered the people camping out in front for days. What they didn't report was that, by 2 AM, those stores were ghost towns, many of them looking like a tornado hit.

The problem going forward is that the retailers have basically trained their customers to shop Black Friday at midnight, and to go after the most outrageous, heavily advertised deals. They're realizing that it's craziness, that the toll on margin and on the workers is creating more problems, but no one can figure out a way out of it because they're afraid of letting those customers go someplace else.

[Gaffer]

This “whopping” Black Friday thing was just a continutation of the Let’s Help Obama LIE...unemployment - they lie about it. The DOW, it jumps a hundred points and it’s a resounding rebound indicator that we’ve turned the corner...it drops and it’s somebody else’s fault (anybody but Obama)....unemployment goes up, it’s ‘unexpected’, it goes down, we’ve turned the corner - only to be revised downward on Monday or Tuesday the next week....

When are people going to realize that this government, its officials and the MSM are our enemies, as real as ones in uniforms with guns lining you up against a stone wall.

[Nik Naym]

"When are people going to realize that this government, its officials and the MSM are our enemies, as real as ones in uniforms with guns lining you up against a stone wall."

The sheep will realize it when the ones in uniforms with guns line them up against a stone wall.

[AbolishCSEU]

“I’mmmmmmm
Dreeeee-amingggggg of a
Craigslist
Christ-mas”

“With every Craigslist Ad I Scan. . .”

[beaversmom]

A liberal on my Facebook page is posting that a couple of gas stations in the Denver area are selling gas for under $3.00. I found it for $2.96 at Sam’s the other day. Woohoo, happy days are here again! /s

[Gaffer]

Keep telling everyone you know this:

GAS WAS $1.85 ON OBAMA’S INAUGURATION DAY.

[beaversmom]

Holy cow! $1.85! Probably even cheaper here in Denver back then.