Experts on retail sales are obsessed with numbers on Thanksgiving weekend — for Black Friday. It’s the biggest shopping day of the year and the day that retailers hope will help put them in the black. They’re also watching to see how this year went for clues about how the economy is doing.
The problem is it’s a bit difficult to tell. The numbers aren’t always clear.
Many stores expanded the number of early morning specials and hours to attract shoppers. Did you end up waiting in line for a deal? I did!
Fact: Black Friday accounts for about 10 percent of total holiday sales.
Fact: Online sales on Thursday and Friday after Thanksgiving were up 11%, compared with the same period a year ago, according to comScore Inc., an Internet research company. I like the ease of shopping online (it’s much warmer) but then I get the package and it’s never quite what I expect. So it’s back to the stores for returns.
Some stores, like Old Navy, were open on Thanksgiving.
Fact: The AP reported: The National Retail Federation, the world’s leading retail trade group, released data on spending and traffic late Sunday, based on an online poll of almost 5,000 shoppers, conducted by BIGresearch, a market research firm. The group extrapolated that total spending reached $41.2 billion for the Thursday-to-Sunday weekend, up 0.5 percent from a year ago; it reported 195 million people were visiting stores and Web sites, compared with 172 million a year ago. It also noted that discount stores took a back seat to department stores.
Another research firm ShopperTrak released data that showed that customer counts actually declined 1.1 percent for the Friday through Sunday weekend, but showed that sales were up a more robust 1.6 percent compared with a year ago. ShopperTrak derives its estimates from crowd-counting sensors in more than 50,000 stores, combined with data from the retailers themselves on spending and how it relates to customer traffic.
So what I want to know is how was your spending? GetECash payday loans are a quick way to get quick cash to take advantage of sales, or tide your credit card bill over until you get paid.
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