Black Friday sales are weren’t they used to be.
While the data compiled to tally up all the consumer dollars for the feverish sub-holiday couldn’t account for the Mike Brown supporters and struggle fights, their contribution–combined with sales beginning before the Thanksgiving week’s end–accounted for billions of dollars in lost revenue compared to the previous years.
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Matt Shay, the trade group’s CEO, said he thinks people benefiting from the recovery may not feel the need to fight crowds to get the deepest discount on a TV or toaster. And those who feel like the recession never ended may not have the money and will stretch out what they spend through Christmas.
And shoppers are still feeling the effects of high food prices and stagnant wages.
“While they’re more optimistic, they’re very cautious,” Shay said. “If the deals are not right for them, they’re not going to spend.”
Bottom line: Expect more deep discounts, all season long.
“Every day will be Black Friday. Every minute will be Cyber Monday,” he said.
Some of those discretionary dollars are migrating online.
Target said Thanksgiving saw a 40 percent surge in online sales and was its biggest online sales day ever. And Wal-Mart reported Thanksgiving was its second-highest online day ever, topped only by Cyber Monday last year.
From Nov. 1 through Friday, $22.7 billion has been spent online, a 15 percent increase from last year, according to research firm comScore. On Thanksgiving, online sales surged 32 percent, while Black Friday online sales jumped 26 percent.
In stores, shoppers spent $9.1 billion on Black Friday, according to research firm ShopperTrak, down 7 percent from last year. That was partly due to a 24 percent surge in Thanksgiving sales, to $3.2 billion.
ShopperTrak estimated that in-store sales for the two days combined slipped half a percent to $12.29 billion.
A historic list of violent incidents–some even being fatal–could also be attributed to people thinking twice before waking up at the crack up dawn for a TV.
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