The down economy will not see a bounceback with holiday sales. Initial reports of Black Friday sales from retailers indicate a dismal improvement of just 0.3%, according to ShopperTrak. Sales, while slightly improved, are not on the level with the extra aggressive push put on by retailers in the past several weeks to drive sales. Black Friday deals were expanded in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, with many retailers such as Best Buy launching preview events for VIP customers before Thanksgiving that did little to entice consumers to spend. Extra hours and even opening on Thanksgiving Day merely spread the sales around, rather than boosting sales overall as retailers had hoped.
Reaction to retailer offerings were negative in online chat rooms on sites devoted to tracking Black Friday deals and coupons. “Why so many flat screen televisions? Doesn’t Walmart know we have purchased them on Black Friday for the last 8 years running? There’s a glut of them and the prices aren’t all that great compared to last year.”
Online retailers seem to fare better than their brick-n-mortar counterparts, enjoying a 16% increase in sales according to Coremetrics. But those sales could well be skewed by aggressive coordination between print and online retailing, where a store promises that the deal can be consumated and paid for online so that the customer can just come to the store to pick it up. A lot more retailers had that capability this year and sales online were spurred by Walmart who strategically announced just before Thanksgiving free shipping options that other retailers had to match.
For Dave Anderson of Philadelphia the process didn’t work. “I ordered a great deal on an item at Lowes for $30. When I went to the store to pick it up they had sold it to another customer. Lame. Never again will I do such a thing.”
Shoppers were out in force, up an estimated 2.2 percent over last year but many were merely kicking tires. “I am waiting because I have to wait,” said shopper Angela Fox, of El Segundo, California. “I won’t have the money to buy for Christmas until just before Christmas. I just hope the deals are still there because I won’t have as much to spend this year.”
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