Black Friday Looking More Like "Bleak Friday"

A slew of numbers out today confirm that rather than beginning to get into the buying spirit, consumers are only further paring back their spending as the holidays approach.
 
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced today that consumer spending fell by 1 percent in October compared with the month earlier—the sharpest decrease since a 1.2 percent drop in September 2001. The decline builds on a growing downward trend in personal consumption, with spending decreasing 0.3 percent in September, 0.1 percent in August, and 0.1 percent in July.
 
Consumer spending makes up 70 percent of G.D.P., so those figures go a long way toward explaining the nation's overall economic contraction.
 
Spending is down in part because Americans have grown anxious about their jobs and are hording their cash.

Up to 128 million shoppers and would-be shoppers could be expected this holiday weekend, but the numbers represent a drop of more than 5 percent from a year ago, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Some 49 million U.S. shoppers already plan to hit stores this coming holiday weekend, prompted by pent-up demand and lured by deep discounts, according to the BIGresearch study for the National Retail Federation (NRF).

An additional 79 million would-be shoppers are playing wait-and-see, planning to suss out the weekend promotions before deciding whether to shop, the survey found.