Tech & Biz

Black Friday Numbers Positive for Retailers

by Jordan Yerman | November 30, 2008 at 11:48 am

891 views | 23 Recommendations | 2 comments

The numbers are in: despite early indicators to the contrary, shoppers really shopped on Black Friday, and retailers are touting this (admittedly small) gain in overall sales as a harbinger of a good shopping season.

These sorts of stats always raise an eyebrow, though, for me: there's every possibility that economic concerns turned shoppers into opportunistic predators, gettin' while the gettin's good, and not necessarily treating Black Friday as a warmup to more shopping. For most, the alternative to a cut-price flatscreen TV isn't a full-price flatscreen TV, but no flatscreen TV at all.

Data from ShopperTrak showed sales rose to $10.6bn on Friday, although it was the smallest gain since 2005.

The Thanksgiving weekend marks the start of the holiday shopping season and is regarded as an important test of how willing US consumers are to spend.

Analysts said shoppers were responding to heavy discounts.

Then there were those who bought nothing whatsoever.

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house_jacob

at 17:59 on November 30th, 2008

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacobhouse/

house_jacob has contributed a photo to this story.

Mike Wood

at 19:51 on November 30th, 2008

One has to wonder if sometimes folks just say “f*#k it” and rack the credit cards up before going bankrupt. A shot at one more great Christmas before it all goes to hell. Also, I think people tend to spend a little more when they’re confronted with troubles. I guess it makes them feel good.