This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Most Overhyped Black Friday In History A Dud? ShopperTrak Reports Just 0.3% Increase In Black Friday Sales Over 2009, Drop In Real Terms
The shopping day that was supposed to signal the renaissance of the US consumer, and justify the massive overhiring by US retailers (not to mention the completely dislocated from reality surge in stock price for razor thin margin retailers like Amazon), is increasingly seeming to be a dud. WSJ reports, citing channel checker ShopperTrak, that "Black Friday sales rose only slightly from a year ago even though more
shoppers visited stores, retail traffic monitor ShopperTrak said
Saturday, setting the stage for another uncertain holiday season for
retailers. Sales increased 0.3% to $10.7 billion, according to ShopperTrak, which
installs monitoring devices in stores to gauge traffic. Traffic rose by
2.2%, ShopperTrak said." For the observant ones out there, this is in nominal terms: adjusted for inflation there was actually a drop in end sales. Even so, the primary reason for the disappointment is that Black Friday actually started early on in the month, with most retailers offering comparable loss-leading deals such as those seen on the Friday after the national holiday early in November, reducing the actual purchasing power for the all important day. "The smaller than expected increase is due in part to discounts offered
earlier in November as well as online-only promotions, ShopperTrak
founder Bill Martin said. Traffic to stores was up over 6% for the first
two weeks of November, an early boost that could affect retailers'
performance in the coming weeks, he said." Last but not least it should also be noted that with millions of Americans living mortgage payment free for over 18 months now, and using money that should be going to banks (and nationalized GSEs) to instead purchase shoe closet 32 inch TVs, that sooner or later the bulk of American taxpayers who funded yet another top line (but certainly not margin) bonanza for the nation's retailers may soon say enough, and vote against further subsidies of zombie companies whose existence allows for continued US consumer "strength."
More from the WSJ:
"The reality is we have a deal-driven consumer in 2010," Mr. Martin said in a release. "The American shopper has adapted to the economic climate over the last couple of years and is possibly spending more wisely as the holiday season begins."
It is not all bad news: it turns out the conversion rate was higher as more Americans than last year, taking a clue from their leaders, have decided to buy now, and pay never:
In a somewhat more optimistic reading than ShopperTrak's, market research firm NPD Group Inc. said retailers did a better job this Black Friday in getting people who visited their stores to leave with something in the shopping bag. The so-called rate of conversion rose by 4% over the prior-year period, NPD said, with 95% of shoppers in stores making a purchase.
"Retailers did a better job of luring consumers in with big deals and great savings," Marshal Cohen, NPD Group's chief industry analyst, said in a release.
We hope to get more in-depth channel checks courtesy of our own expert network over the next day, but for the time being we are content that CNBC's producers are already huddling around a conference table 3 deep, coming up with ways to spin the disappointing sales data as favorable to the familiar teleprompter reading propaganda crew.
»
- 14409 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
We did ditch the 500 channels. Cut back to just the local channels and a BARE selection of channels that are family friendly. We were paying 70 dollars a month, now we are only paying 21.oo a month for this.
We are increasingly living a more 1880's based life with just enough electronics and technology to do well within our means. That 12 year old vehicle that hardly has anything electronic inside (Manual windows, manual everything and stick shift) is easier to maintain and upkeep than today's luxury loaded marshmellows that threaten to place the buyer into a abyss of bondage and debt.
We stuck a Digital Antenna outside to capture the DTV television in case the satellites go down.
If DTV goes down along with the net, there is still shortwave radio.
I bought one flat screen TV two years ago. The rest are old conventional that wouldn't work after analog to digital transition occurred. Somehow, the transmission is received thru dish satellite. I'm so fortunate to still receive signal via analog TV technology.
Sony Flexible Full Color Paper Screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6bkmPjVF-k
OLED is absolutely THE shit. I have an OLED in the Samsung smartphone and it is balls
It's nice that all the Christian holidays serve no other purpose but to line jews' pockets.
Jesus was a jew.
Jesus didn't believe in himself? It seems odd that the son of God would lack self esteem.
ITG, let's play nice. In case you didn't watch this weekend, the History Channel is revealing God was an alien from outer space. I kid you not. Rolls my eyes at the lack of Media power these days.
There were no jews then. There were pharisees and sadducees. You are going to want to stay on the porch rather than tangle with me.
Today's "jews" are a sociopathic race cult of russians and poles masquerading as a religion who converted in the last third of the 1st millenium of the common era.
The talmudic scum of europe run out of 110 countries and counting.
Honey, I told you to be nicer.
People like you make my tribes job so much easier.
Keep up the good work.
L'Chaim
You're the kind of antisemite a guy can respect - I mean, there's no dicking around, mincing words or sugar coating. You're right out there with it, so good for you.
That said, go fuck yourself, you psychotic piece of shit. There's nothing even remotely interesting or entertaining about watching a loser like you blame his failures in life on others.
Asshole.
I have to admit I just laughed out loud and woke up my sleeping wife. Thanks for the sardonic wit.
Shave his ass for me.
geithner,orszag,bernanke,summers,paulson,greenspan,rubin,friedman,fuld,
frank,thain,dodd,mozillo,o'neal,gensler, cassano, blankfein, shapiro,yellin, fink,kashkari, cohn, dudley, dugan, kagan, lippman---
Substitute Sicilian last names for all the jews in that list above and what you would have is La Cosa Nostra, with their Irish consiglieres.
Be blind to it but the guy is right.
It is a jewish Cabal that controls the global economy.
"jews" aren't Semites. Write it down.
Sodomite, are you from Sodom or Gomorrah?
ASSachussets
"I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?"
R. King
holy shit! Hadn't seen this sociopathic dork in a few days and thought maybe ZH shut the door on him..... too much to hope for, I guess. HEY TYLER! What kind of dive you run here? Seriously, man, what level of sick-puke, pure hate horseshit psycho is "enough"? Where's the line?
Tyler is either very free speech, or very uninterested in moderating comments. Since it is his blog, and his reputation on the line, we just have to accept the fact that this encourages an unsavory element. It also allows us to get our shots in at these people, and I certainly take my shots at them.
I find the progression of comments fascinating; over the life of the blog they have moved from largely mainstream and economic comments to mainly social and increasingly extreme comments. This has happened even as the readership has increased, which should have a diluting effect. We now have a contingent of racists, troofers, conspiracy theorists, survivalists, secessionists, and other fringe players. The issue would make a great graduate thesis, and I hope someone is working on it.
"contingent of racists, troofers, conspiracy theorists, survivalists, secessionists, and other fringe players."
Provocateurs Used to Discredit Zero Hedge?
Are you sure they are not sock puppets of competitors, political parties, officials and the usual cointelpro US government security apparatus using provocateurs to discredit Zero Hedge?
Make the messanger out as a nut ball blog with nut ball readership to dilute Tyler's constantly exposing and posting systemic political and financial market corruption?
As Tyler's readership and sources for exposing corruption rise, so do the provocateurs?
These acts of infiltration and provocateurs are historical fact...
Don't forget the Birthers!
;-)
Khazars actually, of Turkic origins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars
Do you have anything besides anti-semitic thoughts to share on ZH? Your post are really rather tedious......
Getting flak means you're over the target.
I don't think it's nice.
I learned enough after working a couple black Fridays to know I never wanted to be like those weird ass people or make a career out working in retail. I never understood this phenomena; I always thought people who show up at 3:00am to go shopping where insane. All the door buster giveaways are just shiny pieces of plastic shit with cords coming out and guaranteed to be broken within 6 months; the fools will stampede themselves to death to get them.
Do school kids still laugh incredulously at the story of selling Manhatten for a bag of trinkets? Cause it sure seems like we're selling America to the ChiComms on the cheap.
Out at a regional mall in California around 11AM Friday. Parking lot was half full. Walked into one of those body scents scrub whateverthefuck store and the greeter/sales people outnumbered the patrons. Nearly every store had a greeter working the parking lot trying to get people in. It was like the old Times Square peep shows from the 70's. Or so I have been told. You could smell the desperation. At a Bed Bath and Beyond the nominal checkout cost of the average shopper seemed to be $25. Not exactly a moving retail experience. I'm sure the media will all spin it as a madhouse of confident consumers. I never saw it. Never did buy anything. Retail is for suckers - those "sales" prices at for idiots. Ordered some discounted shit online with free shipping. Merry x-mas.
We all know the Govenment & Media plan to lie about Black Friday. So let's have a good laugh instead.
Mr Bean - Shopping for Toiletries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncMlYBdDRjE
you could have recycled this article from any year over the past 20....i have read, "another uncertain holiday " so many times i could hurl a gallon of puke across wall street onto the new york fed's windows. what mind control drivel....i don't give a rat's ass how good or bad holiday sales are...as pointed out elsewhere this is a mouse on an elephant's back.
+1
My less-than-scientific retail analysis from Denver:
Took kids/grandkids to lunch at the most popular mall in Denver today (Park Meadows), and if you didn't know the date, you'd swear it was an average weekday. While eating in the giant food court, we counted the number of shoppers with bags, and it was fewer than 1 in 20! We bought a couple of books at Borders (not crowded; mostly parents sitting and reading to their kids) and left around 1:30. It wasn't crowded at either the Apple store or the new Microsoft store. There were more folks arriving as we left, but it seemed more socializing than shopping. The folks with bags were predominantly small purchases (not jewelry).
In years past the traffic had to be managed by police, there were lines at all the food counters and the foot traffic was shoulder-to-shoulder. Nothing even close this year. The mood was casual, and even a bit friendly. Reminded me of window shopping back in the day.
My gift giving this year: While I'm getting the grandkids a few cool, but sensible things this year, I'm giving my two sons and their wives rolls of Silver Eagles. (Purchased in August!) I'm debating whether or not to peel the "Ready to Sell?" stickers off. Those of you who purchase from Gainseville Coins will know what I mean.
Happiest of Holidays to All at ZH, and best wishes for surving what's ahead,
Roscoe
Oddly enough, driving past the malls, they were more crowded the first two weeks of November than they were on Black Friday.
In the new normal, it appears that the early retailer catches the bucks.
I was getting a good laugh at the retailers that can't even let the consumer or their employees spend time with their family on Thanksgiving.
Says something for the old blue laws we used to have where retail was forced closed on Sunday except for the essentials.
Than again, in the old times, the business owners were happy for the day off and most stores weren't box stores sending their profits out of state.
Says something for the old blue laws we used to have where retail was forced closed on Sunday except for the essentials.
As an anarchist I can't support Blue Laws, but there was something special about Sundays back in the day. Now it's hard to imagine that most retail was shut down one day out of seven. On holidays every store in town was closed except for one pharmacy selected in rotation.
Well the entire Sabbath law was really the first employment regulation. It forced the ruling class to give their employees a day off to rest.
Which if you believe that the Hebrews were just freed from slavery, might be something the people liked.
I have no problem with government. I have a problem with who owns and operates the government. Right now we essentially live in Anarchy so you should be happy. The laws and rules are enforced by your ability to project force, whether they are capital or a gun. Other than that, there are no laws in America.
Our congress, courts, and President change the constitution at their will. Our law enforcement chooses who they prosecute for crimes while allowing others committing the same crimes with their full knowledge off the hook. Our courts ignore laws at will.
We have banks who are actively strategically defaulting on investments screaming about people doing the same.
Yep, society has no order right now, as such I expect a pretty epic collapse.
Locally, only around 11% of property crime is ever solved.
Victims have to suck it up and go buy a new item. Sales tax is 9%. hmmmm
Right now we essentially live in Anarchy so you should be happy.
Anarchy literally means "no government." Do you really believe that there is no government?
You complain that the government is mismanaged and equate that with anarchy. You miss the point that government exists solely to be managed in a way to enrich the privileged few. Such abuse is not, as you seem to think, an aberration.
Only in anarchy can the sovereignty of the individual be upheld. The recognition of natural rights is the only just rule of law.
The global economy is consumer dependent....
Were you serfs able to afford your coveted propaganda transmission devices, er, televisions? Did not the retail establishments accept your debt enslavement cards? If that is not evidence enough to substantiate our oligarchical rule, then I don't know what is. Without us, it is a near certainty that you would be forced to intake your blissful distraction from something suitable only for the homeless and insane -- televisions less than 40 inches. Our rule has truly made you a distinguished individual, for your well-endowed television makes you a peasant among serfs.
I may decide to cough up a single gold bar for a 40" one. Maybe.
IF I decide to smile on the corporate overlords and their ABCP toilet roll, roll, roll.
If I buy a 60", can I get a peerage?
Gold? That barbarous relic; I'm aghast! I'm going to save you from yourself and take that from you. You have reservations, you say? Ha! Check out the cool holographic paper you get in exchange!
I thought TPTB were aiming for a cashless society, so they could track every single transaction in the world. And tax it.
Dude, you need a huge room for a 60". I have a 52" that almost overpowers a 20'x20' room. I got it in 2008 to watch the end of the world. Since that didn't happen, it has been really nice for football games, which is about the only time it is turned on.
I used to work at Sony on video codecs and used my employee discount to the hilt to make very sure to test my 1080p code thoroughly <snicker> so I'm a wee bit spoiled in this regard, but mine mostly gets used for Sesame St clips off YouTube now.
(no, not for me ;)
It will have no value at all in about a year. Gold may hold on a little longer than that.
It will have no value at all in about a year. Gold may hold on a little longer than that.
It's one thing to have an opinion that gold is 'overvalued', whatever that means. To say that gold will have no value in a year, well, is just silly. Gold has a track record thousands of years old; how does your predictive record match up to it? Maybe your predictions will have no value in about a year?
Once again, CNBC is quickly revealed to be a bunch of hack hype mongers. I hope they all end up where they belong one day running carnival side shows.
If they really wanted to report on something increasing substantially over last year’s Black Friday, forget sales; it would have been the number of customers getting into arguments and fist fights with each other over limited supplies of discount merchandise. According to my friend who works at Target, that was up about 20%.
And if you need further evidence that Black Friday was a dud:
"NY launches Small Business Saturday to spur sales", in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/NY-launches-Small-Business-apf-3888220302.html?x=0
God help us if they ever figure out how spike the water supply with this shit.
I just heard about small biz saturabay. Amex started it. They said the benefit is knowing 68% of the money paid stays in the community in traded and jobs vs 45% with a big box place.
Mobile devices have to be hurting businesses because people use those apps to shop the cheapest prices and ask for price matching. Margins will be gone.
Really there is no love lost buying the same Chinese crap from one place or another.
I'll admit that I bought some "cheap" chinese crap -- Silver pandas.... All the retail stores I saw were empty and crowded with employees that were so helpful they annoyed the shit out of me and my wife. Within 30 seconds we were harassed by not one pimply faced guy, not two, not three, no -- and not even FOUR. It was five pimply faced guys trying to help sell us Chinese made shit with the 60% markup of Best Buy!
I bought 3 things on Amazon yesterday and it was a specific set of things I have been waiting for 6 months to purchase.
Mad Men Blu Ray Seasons 2 & 3 for $9.99 each (I still laugh whenever I see these jokey $39.99 at the soon to be bankrupt Best Buy)
The Man with no name Blu Ray trilogy only $25.00. With Super Saver free shipping I get the feeling Amazon did not make much of this sale.
Black Friday? Yessssss......
www.lyricsdepot.com/steely-dan/black-friday.html
Much more appropriate
+666 (SPX)
Once again ZeroHedge, in its rush to post more seemingly bearish headlines, misses the complete story. Retailers were out with specials in early November pushing sales up over 6% in the first few weeks of November. This is primarily why Black Friday sales were up only slightly. In fact, many cogniscenti were expecting Black Friday sales to be lower this year compared to last year due to the strong early November figures. Go back to talking about how "fraudclosure", Goldman Sachs and Greece will end civilization as we know it. Its more entertaining (in a Marvel Comics sort of way).
The article discusses the point you make about November sales. Did you read it?
Yes, and as I said, ZH concluded Black Friday was a dud when in fact it should be viewed as a success given the early November activity. Was that point to obscure for you?
Thats the ticket. Everything is better than fine. I love the smell of a credit bubble blowing up in the morning. Keep thinking that way. It will prepare you for the best yet to come!
Forgive our skepticism while we wait to see their actual sales numbers for November before we sport wood.
Most of us live in the real world, you see...we were out and about in early November, and did not exactly
feel the crushing throng of holiday shopping excitement then either.
Perhaps it was merely too diffused to perceive, or perhaps you're as full of hot air as the Turkey day parade balloons.
If the skepticism were even-keeled then that'd be one thing but the headlines on this site are of a "Cry wolf" variety - eager to frame anything as the sky is falling - when its rarely so dire.
Anyone have the economic numbers for Santa's Village at North Pole? Are the elves on strike? Will the IMF bail out Santa if need be?
I believe the elves got about $4.8B from the IMF, but they're not in the EU and can devalue the Krona so it's all good as long as the little guys get their pensions.
They did have this to say, "How the fuck do you make an iPad?!"
I will buy a tree/plant at a local nursery. On the plant I will place fiat for my adult children in 100.00 denominations. There will be a poem citng the plant's need for what nature offers: earth, sunlight and H2O; and a request that they immediately use these funds to get "what they need, not what they want", with a suggestion that what they need is to get out of debt as quickly as possible, not to be a debt slave.
I find solace in the fact that all those consumption driven mindless lemmings, waiting for hours in the cold outside a target and other associated stores, will be the ones who pay the ultimate price when the shit hits the fan!
I present some Sunday morning tunes. There are some artists that were new to me that I've been enjoying greatly (Abdomen Burst for one) and some tracks from artists folks have told me they want to hear more from. Without further adoooo
exhale (a playlist):
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BC8D4475D9DA7B4D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjr7NtntWeQ
My husband and I have been renovating an older home over the last three years. Nov/Dec '08/09 sales were tremendous, and we easily dropped 15K both years in supplies and decorating needs. I have the same budget this year and have gone through a measly 3K - none of it on sales items. From what see the sales aren't out there this year. Not only that, I can't find items I expected to be available. The inventory isn't there. How can we spend if the items aren't on the shelves? This can't be a good omen for the remainder of the commercial holiday season.
Over the years we have sunk just about all the spare funds into the house. Not out of decorating, but out of repairs and necessary replacement of obselete stuff. We do try to take very good care of what little we have in the home. We have a portable dishwasher that is over 12 years old and does not leak. However the kitchen it is in will have to be replaced when the roof is replaced. No granite or stainless either. Just strong workmanship that will last a long time.
The Student Loans we pay each month to Uncle Sam are sucking the very life out of money we can otherwise sink into the local economy putting Tradesmen to work inside and about our home. So, that will be the first to be paid off. If necessary we will sell our home, pay off the student loan, buy a bit of land somewhere and build a small A frame home about 700 square feet and live quietly in safety away from the towns and citys with thier increasing tensions, taxes and gang activity.
Or we can simply maintain our student loan payments faithfully and wait until the entire system collaspes when sufficient amounts of defaults reaches critical mass.
God bless America,Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zBWjlkKDpA
Take a good hard look, this video is a mirror.....This is you America, only happy if you have some cheap Chinese shit in a cheap Chinese cart...Really sad what we have become and what we see as important. So get back on your i phone and download the latest app. because to you it's like taking a big hit of crack. This is what they wanted and this is what they got, lemmings on their wheel...lined up to make a run on a Target store. With 70% of GDP dependent on their lemmings, it's about control and believe me they control you.
I believe that a lot of Black Friday action involves folks buying deeply-discounted, big-ticket items to resell on ebay or craigslist. You know, buy the Emachines laptop at Walmart for $199, flip it for $325, etc.... So, I think much of the angst stems from profit motive/greed....