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Holiday Spending Season Begins With Decline At Brick-And-Mortar Outlets Offset By Jump In Online Purchases
There was much hope for America's struggling brick-and-mortar retail outlets that aided by plunging gasoline prices, Americans would come out in droves to chase Black Friday (and increasingly Thanksgiving) blockbuster deals on the ground across America's increasingly troubled shopping malls and retail outlets. And while there was the usual hysteria on select occasions (see this post for video evidence), for yet another year American shoppers spent slightly less money during Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday than across the same two days in 2013, according to research firm ShopperTrak. Sales at brick-and-mortar retail stores came to about $12.29 billion on Thursday and Friday, a 0.5% decrease to the $12.35 billion spent during the same two days last year.
Notably, the start to 2014 holiday spending was pulling even more demand up front, to the day when families traditionally sat at home in a post-turkey dinner food coma, with customer traffic rising by 27.3% on Thanksgiving Day compared with a year earlier, while falling 5.6% on Black Friday. Not surprisingly, in a scramble to attract as many of the early spenders as possible, more stores than ever opened their doors this Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, Black Friday is still the dominant shopping day with shoppers spending nearly three times as much, or $9.1 billion, on Friday than on Thursday.
"We’ve seen an increase in Thanksgiving shopping over the past few years at the expense of Black Friday. More stores are opening, and earlier, which has caused a shift in shopping patterns. While Thanksgiving store visits increased 27.3%, Black Friday was down about 5.6%,” commented ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin.
What are Americans spending the most money on? Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consulting firm, said he’s seen robust sales of consumer electronics but weaker demand for clothing. Johnson, whose team visits the 30 largest U.S. retailers on Black Friday, said many Americans still don’t have much extra cash to spend. “The top 10 percent is doing fine, but everybody else is struggling,” Johnson said. “A lot of discretionary spending has gone to monthly, recurring bills -- cable, cellphone, data plan, Netflix etc.”
Of course, there is a need to spin the data as it will hardly support the recovery theme if a year after what was said to be the worst holiday-shopping season since 2009, sales deteriorate once more.
“We need to be cautious about looking at a single day or two in projecting the season’s total,” says Martin. “In 2013, the Black Friday weekend produced a 1% gain, underperforming the 3.1% gain for the entire season. There is a significant amount energy left in the consumer with 7 of the top 10 sales days of the year yet to come, including Super Saturday which is projected to be the number one spending day of the year.”
But while conventional retail outlets remain challenged, with plunging gasoline prices not doing much to stimulate that family trip to the mall, online spending continues to rise. Sales online the day after Thanksgiving surged 22% from a year earlier as record numbers of Americans opt to avoid the mall mania altogether and just do their shopping through a computer or smartphone.
As Bloomberg reports, the gain outpaced online shopping on Thanksgiving as heavy Black Friday promotions attracted consumers, researcher ChannelAdvisor Corp. Among the biggest beneficiaries with EBay and Amazon, where spending rose by 27% and 24%, respectively, on Black Friday over last year. Needless to say, none of this provides a glimpse into the actual bottom line of retailers: it is possible that as the war for the American spending dollar heats up, that more online vendors are merely selling at zero or negative margins, arend Amazon is all too familiar with.
Some other comments from Bloomberg:
Black Friday online shopping was done less on mobile devices this year than on Thanksgiving, slipping to 46 percent from 49 percent, the company said. The rates of actual purchases also declined from Thursday, perhaps because consumers were more selective or finding hot items out of stock, Morrisville, North Carolina-based ChannelAdvisor said.
IBM Benchmark said Black Friday online sales rose 9.5 percent, and mobile sales jumped 25 percent. For Thanksgiving, mobile sales on smartphones and tablets accounted for 52 percent of online traffic.
So with the start to 2014's holiday selling season already in the history books, here are some observations from company executives on the key trends they are seeing:
Macy’s Inc. Chief Executive Officer Terry Lundgren, who opened the doors at the department-store chain two hours earlier than last year, said activewear and outerwear have been big sellers so far for men, women and children. “This is an outerwear season for the cold-weather climate stores,” Lundgren said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “There was a little snow coming down and it motivated people to buy more coats.”
Target Corp. showed that consumers weren’t deterred by last year’s breach in which payment-card data was stolen. CEO Brian Cornell said he was “encouraged by early results” after Target.com had record online sales on Thanksgiving, which was up 40 percent, helped by free shipping. Meanwhile, Target stores -- which also opened two hours earlier than last year -- attracted large numbers of shoppers, Cornell said in an interview.
Jesse Tron, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, said shopper traffic was strong yesterday and today, with many consumers hunting for deals. “We’re seeing a lot of shoppers out there,” Tron said in an interview. “We’ll see how that translates into sales, but while they do browse and may make incremental sales, they’re not walking out empty-handed. Conversion rates are really strong, and if that carries over that’s good for sales.”
Matt Shay, CEO of the National Retail Federation, echoed the sentiment that consumers were turning out in force this year. The NRF’s research shows that most shoppers will head to discounters, with clothing high on their lists, Shay said. “The numbers look positive,” Shay said in an interview. “The stories we hear from the CEOs are all trending in the right direction.”
Because retail CEOs are known to be very accurate and unbiased commentators on confidence-boosting trends that result in higher stock prices and, hence, stock-based compensation... at least until the start of earning warnings season, which traditionally begins anywhere between 2 and 4 weeks after the start of the holiday season.
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Control the airwaves
Fuel the reaction
Use every weapon of mass-distraction
Turn active people into passive consumers
Feed 'em bogus polls and harebrained rumours
Cut back civil rights
Make no mistake
Tell 'em homeland security is now at stake
Whip up a frenzy keep 'em suspended
Don't let 'em know that their liberty's ended! -KMFDM, Stars and Stripes
And here I thought I was the only person who liked KMFDM
As long as the stock market remains levitated by infinite manipulation by the Fed, retail sales will be robust. But all manipulations end in tears.
Economic nirvana caused by printing trillions, manipulating markets higher, fake economic statistics, pushing oil lower, keeping interest rates near zero will not last forever.
No shit!?
Really??
Shirley you jest..
I never jest, and dont call me Shirley
ok Susie
I actually went out into the madness yesterday to pick up an item at store that I ordered online (funny and sad I know).....I was dreading it....and then when I got there.....NOTHING. ......No madness...No craziness.....hardly any crowds .......not dead, but not overwhelmed in any way......in and out in 10minutes.....it was painless....and I was back home before I knew it.....doesn't bode well for brick and mortars in my little test run.
I am watching a friend's dogs while he is out of town, and I forgot that I needed to pick up some dog food on black friday. I got up to his house, said "oh shit, what's the closest place to get dog food," and walmart was the fucking answer. Granted, this was at 8:00 PM, but still, into a walmart on black friday? Madness. I got there, and the place was no more packed than normal. The morning was probably madness, but still, it wasn't like being shoved into a cattle car. There were two people in front of me in the express checkout line.
Went to the pharmacy at about 4:30 to pick up a refill at our local (remember, small city area, not major metropolitan) mall (which has a few mainline stores) and it was Not Holiday Style Busy. Nope.
Why? Didn't you go to a brick and mortar to pick up your purchase? Seems like it doesn't bode well for USPS and brethren.
Mrs Vandal got out of work at 11:30 PM on Thanksgiving, and when I picked her up, she wanted to see how bad the lines of people were for various stores in town out of morbid curiosity.
Unlike the past, ca. 2010 and earlier, there were no lines around the stores, no overflowing parking lots at Wal-Mart, GameStop, and Target.
Were it not for the fact that that the clock showed 11:45 PM by the time we got there, it could have easily shown 7:45 PM.
Stores opened on Thanksgiving evening, not at midnight like in years past.
GameStop was closed when we went by.
When we stopped in at 1 AM, we were the only people in the store besides the employees.
We just had the massive, post-TG gun show. There have been times it was all asses and elbows there at that time of year. If they had them for sale, you would have seen hundreds drive off in used sherman tanks!
Yesterday, Crickets. Not a ghost town, but very few attendees.
The Economy?
Or, have we hit Peak Firearm?
I haven't been to a gun show in a while but maybe everyone is hunting. or not. A lot of us bought a little extra when the sandy hook incident went down. I know guys that were buying pallets of ammo and were not caring about the price of fear they may not get it ever again. Maybe not peak firearm just folks with a lot of supply on hand and likely maxed out cc's from their prior purchases. Next gun show I will make an effort to attend just to see if it is packed with folks.
What would be an interesting stat, is how much of the fiat spent on this 2 day circus is on a credit card? And when the credit card was used, how many people do not have the money to pay the bill on the credit used when it comes due?
You know what, fuck humanity. Sick pieces of shit. Hey a struggling family needs help and everyone walks right by them basically saying go fuck yourself. But offer a tv for $150 bucks and these pieces of shit line up like cattle in a slaughter house.
Do not judge pesants so harshly. They are all you state and more, but even the most selfish, mean, and vile of them are that way because thats the way to keep then under control. Taxes, rents and an environment of hate breeds such people without even knowing why.
Give any of them land that can never be taken away or anyone allowed to question how they use that land, nor what they do on it and you will see even those most vile will change. Your lands were stolen from you, your property was gated and you are left barron in a land of plenty.
That may be true but I grew up very poor. I went through a lot of tough times like a lot of folks in the world. I always offered to help others and was never rude towards my fellow neighbors. My mom would of slapped the shit out of me if I was harsh towards others. Thats the difference. The raising of children today is....can't even find a word to describe it. Yeah it is that fucked up. A lot of us was raised in an era where your neighbor could whip your ass if you mess up. Today that neighbor would go to jail. You are seeing the product created everyday.
That is the way the state wants it. It is the states god given right to discipline your children, not you. Now get back to work, Comrade.
Bingo, saints51, just plain bingo!
The thin veneer of civilization no longer covers the cheap particle board of immoral, uncivil, bad behavior and attendant erosion of self-esteem.
Yep and you know what is funny. Parents today want .gov to tell them how to raise their children. Parents want .gov to be in every second of their life. My mom would be at every PTA meeting. I should know because I was dragged to some. Of course once their I would see my buddies also attending so it was extra playground time. Kids today have no idea how to use their imagination unless youtube or facebook or some other fuckery tells them what to imagine. 8 year old little girls dressing like whores really piss me off. I want to drop kick the parent where it stands. yes I used the word"it",because that is exactly what IT is lol.
whenever it finds a vacuum, .gov moves in with his buddy socialism.
The sad thing is kids today just aren't allowed to be kids. When 2 boys came over to play with our kids once I had to laugh when their mom gave me their lunches ( wasn't sure if I would feed them properly) and video games to play all afternoon. The boys were a little shocked I didn't have any thing the games could play on and looked confused what they were to do. I told them to go outside and play. Dumb looks. So I threw them out. Well, they found our seasonal creek and had a blast. Mr had to show them how to use the band saw to make model boats for their races. I called them in for lunch but they didn't want to eat they were having so much fun. When mom came at 5 she asked where they were. I shrugged my shoulders. Outside somewhere. The woman had a melt down, ran out and dragged two boys covered in mud, grinning ear to ear, up to the house. She really laid into all of us and went out to cover her BMWs leather seats. Her older boy, mud streaming down his face, told me that was the best time he had had at someone's house. I was quite touched but really I hadn't done anything but let them be boys. They were never allowed to come out to my house again.
There is so much wrong with the way kids are being raised today. We tried to raise ours like we were raised and hit obstacles all the time from other parents and teachers. Work hard, be respectful and be home by family dinner or there will be hell to pay was our approach. Quite simple actually.
Miffed
Very true and you are lucky the zombie parent did not call the police. People have been arrested for less.
Thats how all boys played when i was a kid, even girls. I can remember my mom beating my ass because she bought my brand new school shoes and wanted me to break them in. I did by jumping ditches with my buddies and you can guess how that went. I look back at my childhood all the time and think we were dirt poor but I felt rich. Kids today want more ishit. I still have a deviated septum from my younger age. We had a neighbor give us some old boxing gloves. It was on like Donkey Kong. Definitely some of my best memories even beating the shit out of each other lol.
Yeah youre actually lucky youre not facing a child neglect charge right now, like that poor woman in Florida who let her kid walk a few blocks to the park by himself, she wound up in jail that night. Amerika! Fuck yeah!
Cute but very sad story. What a F'ed up mother but the yuppies and others parents are all like that now.
SAN FRANCISCO(CBS/AP) — The crowds of bargain hunters that rush through store doors the day after Thanksgiving have thinned out.
U.S. shoppers spent $9.1 billion at stores on Black Friday, according to data out Saturday from research firm ShopperTrak. That’s a drop of 7 percent compared with the same day last year.
But it’s too early to call the holiday shopping season a dud, said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak’s co-founder. Sales on Thanksgiving jumped 24 percent to $3.2 billion. And overall sales for the two days are expected to slip half a percent to $12.29 billion. The figures don’t include online transactions.
For the second straight year, the report suggests that more people avoided the crowds on Black Friday by avoiding time at home on Thanksgiving Day. This year, many large retail stores decided to open their doors to eager shoppers for extended hours on the holiday.
“People are changing their behavior,” Martin said. “We’ve seen this for two years in a row now. Stores opening on Thanksgiving are simply eroding sales from Black Friday.”
The popularity of shopping online has also lured people away from brick-and-mortar stores. In a separate report out Saturday, IBM said online sales for Black Friday climbed 9.5 percent over the same day last year. More than one of every four transactions were made using a smartphone or tablet computer.
Some people saw no reason to rush to the stores before the weekend.
In Phoenix, Elaine Vanas and her daughter, Christine, were out picking up coats on Saturday, saying they disliked the long lines on Black Friday. At JC Penney, the two found a $50 house coat for Christine’s grandmother for $20, and bought another $200 coat for $20.
“I’m not cheap but I’m frugal,” Elaine Vanas said.
Retail businesses have highs hopes for the holiday shopping season. The National Retail Federation predicts that sales for the last two months of the year will hit $616.9 billion, an increase of 4.1 percent over the same period of 2013. That would count as the biggest increase for that sales period since 2011, but it would still be slower than the 6 percent pace typical before 2007, the year the Great Recession started.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/11/29/crowds-thinner-sales-down-bl...
I will find that same coat at the thrift store in May for $5 to $7. Thats what I call price discovery.
I only buy gifts at craft shows in my area using cash. My local/regional crafters can decide if he/she wants to report the sale or not.
..same with me as well as tipping for services, cash and let their own conscience be their guide..
suckers....
The perverse incentives of our debauched, inside-out economy are becoming grotesque. Debt is money, so all efforts are made to increase the amount of debt. Work is punished, while rent-seeking is subsidized. The things you need to survive get more expensive every day, but discretionary luxury trinkets, and cheap knock-offs of those items, get cheaper every day. This is all predictable if you think about our system in concrete terms.
If Debt is the actual money in a system, then you have to have infinite expansion. Otherwise who would take on debt? Only if you think you will have more money next year than this year would you take on debt willingly. So there has to be inflation, and there has to be real expansion. That requires infinite money, markets, resources, and energy. Money is easy; now that it's debt, make it abstract, and you can have infinite amounts of it to sell to create debt. But once everyone who can manage the debt and has a place to plug it in has a refrigerator, that market dries up. We have tons of resources and oodles of energy, but those are in fact finite, and every year it takes more energy to extract the same quantity.
So what happens in that environment? Rather than develop something more like a steady-state equilibrium, the more fantastical high-risk/high-reward abstract schemes are rewarded. Abstract financial manipulation and abstract information trades are the most lucrative pursuits. Companies like FaceBook are extremely valuable when they all they really do in a business sense is collect and sell their customer's data. Meanwhile manufacturing jobs head overseas chasing the lowest possible wage environment. The logical outcome looks very much like Feudalism. A tiny Elite controls the overwhelming majority of the wealth, maintains a small class of retainers, and the rest are serfs. Politics and all other social aspects develop accordingly. The biggest fear the Elites have is a peasant revolt. This increases pre-emptive brutality, which we call a "police state." There is no middle class to speak of.
Unfortunately (since I'm not in the Elite, and I'm scrambling to keep a place in the class of Court Procurers and Retainers), this has been the state of humanity far more often than not throughout history.
Since I pay all my bills every month, have only minimal long-term debt (still paying down a mortgage), and have a mildly positive net-worth, I am an anachronism. Worse, I am a "Deadbeat" in the eyes of the Financial Elites. They really hope I get a debilitating illness and have to use that gaudy credit rating to the hilt. Once I can be hooked up to the total-extraction Financial Matrix and be mined for all the debt possible, then I will serve a productive role in their scheme. Until then, however, I'm worse than a nuisance to them; I'm actually a menace.
So be it. Instead of Lords and Ladies we have CEO's and CFO's. Instead of the Great Chain Of Being we have various theories of economics which pretend that temporary man-made rules equate to Laws Of Physics. Instead of a Divine Right of Kings we have a hodge-podge of faux-meritocratic apologetics for an increasingly rigid class system. As long as one realizes what is going on, is willing to accept modest comforts rather than fall for the syrupy inducements of those offering the golden handcuffs of short-term luxury in return for lifelong serfdom, one can have a pretty nice life.
But my lifestyle isn't going to prop up the retail sector.
"There is a clear saturation of values in Western societies, especially during the economic crisis. People appear to be tired from this culture of economic indexes and consumerism. More and more try to change their lives and set different priorities, but it is difficult to make it happen as they still greatly depend on the present system."
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/11/revolution-evolution-or-revol...
"Black EBT" cards should of helped those numbers!
You listening Obamba?!
Scrooge won.
pottersville
Smile folks.
The wife thought it was a good idea to get a cat six months ago, the kids have named him 'Dave', and I tell you what, this stupid animal has changed all four of us in Mixy Towers, its a fucking idiot.
Its latest trick among many is thinking its a parrot, as I stand here typing on the lap top at the kitchen bench, the fucking idiot is sitting on my shoulder, it must like the smell of the 'Turner' tobacco I smoke? Oh, and it fucking loves pulling the silicone sealant out from around the back door??
Its not all bad folks, look around you and look at your own families, pets, friends owt. Humans are inherently good things as a whole, dont let the dross get you down, but cats are fucking better mind.
Smile folks, lifes too fucking short...
:-)
Is Mixy Towers anywhere near Fawlty Towers?
Yeah I am currently in constant servitude to a demanding, elitist, arrogant feline passive aggressive at the moment; it's a good lesson on life tho living with a cat because they are the animal kingdom's embodiment of true liberals.
A typical kept cat has a fickle appetite, is always born with a sense of superiority and entitlement despite the questionable linage and with no regard whatsoever of any lesser (human) creature's rights or property.
..in short, you can learn a lot about your fellow man from a living with a cat.
..haha.. Basil the rat.. gotta watch that again.
Cats don't have owners, just servants.
Feel lucky its only a cat.My wife just boughtt another horse.
The cat probably thinks you are the parrot.
We just got a new puppy and she is getting knocked into shape by our resident feline who has zero tolerance for dogs playing silly buggers. Hours of fun and smiles all around. Cheers Mix 96!
Trade the cat in for a dog.
Dogs don't give thier owners brain disease.
Crazy Cat Lady Syndrome is very real - cats carry parasites and such that hop to humans. A dog you might get fleas, that's all.
Yes, that's right: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090311085151.htm (Scientists have discovered how the toxoplasmosis parasite may trigger the development of schizophrenia and other bipolar disorders.)
And, "In addition to causing psychological disorders such as OCD, schizophrenia, and depression, T. gondii can also lead to infected people having a higher risk of being in a car accident than uninfected individuals.[40] A study in the Czech Republic found that latent toxoplasmosis patients were involved in accidents 2.65 times more often than people without toxoplasmosis infection.[40]" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis)
And in another bit of wierdness: "In 2006, a Czech research team[38] discovered women with high levels of toxoplasmosis antibodies were significantly more likely to have baby boys than baby girls. In most populations, the birth rate is around 51% boys, but women infected with T. gondii had up to a 72% chance of a boy." Of course, the baby boy probably has the parasite in his brain at birth, ready to hatch when he reaches adolescence, triggering schizophrenia.
You can tell if you are infected: humans who are infected no longer are revolted by the smell of cat urine (just as rats who are infected no longer fear the smell).
Cat litter is bad, but eating raw meat is worse; that's how the French get it (and the infection rate there is staggering): "For example, in France, a seroprevalence of 71 percent has been found among pregnant women (26, 27)."(http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/154/4/357.full) That could go a long way in explaining the French.
I named my five month old cat Dr. Jekyll. To me he behaves like Mr, Hyde.
If I am eating anything he will demand some of it and eat it. The cat loves banannas. He will eat spinach. He loves vegetables.
I really like it when he uses his claws to climb the walls. If I try to throw him out he will claw and fight to get back inside. He is a stricytly indoor cat.
He has turned into a Watchcat. He sits up on his hind legs and ears extended and alerts
If I am attempting to do anything he will swat whatever it is that I am doing to the ground, demanding undivided attention.
My hands are still shredded bloody stumps.
Yeah. He is a pain in the ass. But I would not have it any other way.
As soon as you walk into a large mall, you are in a few acre circle of price control. Go ahead and shop, shop and shop. You are still in the mall. You will pay whatever, or walk out with nothing. Every store there is aware of what their local competitor within the mall is offering. Bottom prices are dictated by their rent and overhead. On the net, the circle expands to include the entire planet, where you obviously stand a better chance.
I'm glad to see more and more shoppers 'outsourcing' their shopping...if outsourcing is good for finding cheaper labor, it's also good for finding cheaper goods.
Not so good for brick and mortar retailers, but maybe they ought to have thought about that before they jumped on the 'business bandwagon'. It isn't just the big guys who have developed an attitude problem over the past few decades...small business has to a large extent followed along. I've seen more nasty commentary from owners of smaller businesses about employees who aren't worth even minimum wage, and who aren't willing to work for the wages offered, etc, than I have from the large multinationals.
These small businesses made the mistake of thinking that they should follow the lead of the big guys, as if that would gain them entry to 'the club'...bad calculation. It turns out that many of the rules and regulations pushed by big business are specifically designed to make things harder for small business competitors!
And now small business is losing its customer base...people don't HAVE to shop local anymore, and just like they can go elsewhere to find cheaper labor and supplies, so can their customers go in search of cheaper widgets.
And I'll tell you a story...my daughter's boyfriend couldn't join us for Thanksgiving dinner, he had to work. His boss decided that forcing his employees to work on the holiday was the way to go...look at all those big stores doing it.
Well, that didn't work out too good for him this year. No one even came into the store that day...not a SINGLE customer! But the employees he forced to come into work STILL have to be paid their wage AND holiday overtime! Ha ha ha!
I'll bet he decides to close for the day next year. Asshole. Thinks he's WalMart...some kind of big businessman. No sir, you are NOT...you're just a small local retailer that WalMart would gladly put out of business if they could.
Mom and Pop stores need to relearn just WHO their real friends and enemies ARE...
I don't buy Christmas presents. But for ordinary shopping year round, I always go internet for my choice. Price compare across all sellers in an instant, get free shipping and often escape sales tax. But here in Minnesota, AMAZON now collects it's 6% for the state. And that hurts their pricing power with me, I now look outside Amazon for regular items. 6% is a nice chunk, especially when they bone the fuck out of me for state income taxes! Which are sky high!
And not one word or article anywhere, TV, Internet, blogs, radio, newspapers, about......SAVING?
Amerika!
We don't live in that kind of real economy anymore. We live in a fake economy of spending ourselves toward poverty type of economy.
Saving is pointless. You'll either get a crappy rate of return that doesn't beat inflation, or play the casino for higher returns, and get burned. The trick is to spend all your money on things that will retain value, or that will keep until you need them in the future.
About a decade ago, I found a good, well constructed pair of generic looking running shoes at an awesome price. So I bought 4 pairs. I just pulled that 4th pair out of the closet a few weeks ago. Will you look at that! I suddenly have a brand new pair of shoes that's better made than anything I can find in retail now, and was roughly 1/5 the price in 2004 dollars. Maybe they're out of style, but nobody I'm around seems to have noticed that I've been wearing the same shoes for a decade, and they keep magically looking new every 2.5 years or so.
umdesch4 knows what's up, and this story of shoes extends to many types of product. They made some of the bestest skate shoes ever from '98 - '05/'06 - built for longevity. Any chain store with a skateboard section had a 2 for $50 deal with on all of these great shoes. Fast forward to today - the quality is much worse, big name entries into the market (Nike and Adidas) make overpriced shoes that rip on the first ollie, and the sale rack is comprised of unwanted / odd-colored pairs, for buy one get 50% off.
It'll be more and more important to accumulate surpluses of the things you need, use often, and care about the quality of.
Nike makes total shit. I notice those Keen sandals are from Oregon. I am thinking they may be a stealth Nike outfit because they use the same shitty cheap glue. Sad.
I went out at 6pm on Black Friday to do some scavenging. The stores were less crowded than your average weekend and there was still doorbuster inventory of just about every item.
At Target the big ticket front page doorbusters were all still there with a decent amount of inventory. Two racks of $265 Tumi jackets on sale for $50. I bought one because it is a high quality item actually worth $100. So I saw it as getting it 50% off. FOB for the jacket is around $40 so it was almost sold at distributor cost.
Yesterday the malls and brick and mortar stores were ghost towns. Question? If Apple's sales are so great and the iPhone is flying off the shelves, why do they need the biggest incentives in Apple's history to get them to sell? The iPhone6 was available for $1 with a two year contract everywhere.
A year where sales have never been worse just keeps getting worse. We all know what that means, STOCKS AT RECORD HIGHS!!!
Didn't go in any stores on Black Friday. Yuck weather and didn't want anything that bad. I was in Target yesterday and they seemed to still have some big ticket sale items in displays scattered around the store (TVs in the ladies clothing section). Today tried Home Depot on a whim thinking to get a $5 orchid, figured the $5 wreaths would be long gone. Nope, two full racks of orchid...really nice ones...and a half rack or $5 wreaths. Picked up a little craft kit for my kid too. Then WM early before the church crowd gets out to shop, store was a mess, but also still saw the random BF sales displays scattered around.
I just can't get excited for this type of sale. Yes I'd like a flat screen for half off; I still watch a CRT. But these stores have like 3 in stock. I'm not going to do everything into that sea of madness for the _chance_ at a cheap TV.
The De-Yuppification of America has arrived.
And it's going to feel like Godzilla has arrived in Tokyo to the monetarists and supply-siders. Oh the humanity! Oh the tragedy!
Being Yuppie was so self-actualizing! Please shop till ya drop just for old times sake.
“This is an outerwear season for the cold-weather climate stores,” Lundgren said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “There was a little snow coming down and it motivated people to buy more coats.”
People are wearing this outerwear indoors as they turn down their thermostats even though heating costs are cheaper.
This is why holiday spending is down...
http://www.strategic-options.com/insight/what-i-want-for-christmas-black...
garage sales, Maybe craigslist, but mostly Goodwill or Salvation Army and the like for me.
If a person cant get 90% of what they need at these places they are screwed. Especially clothes.
Although I have no fashion kids (thank god!) so my need for just shorts, good tennys, swim turnks, and some tshirts I guess I am different.
Weather here in Costa Rica perfect. Only a pair of shorts with no T-shirt needed till the sun goes down.No heating or cooling expense where I live. Eternal springtime.
They do the Viernes Negro BS here too. Really sad.
1) Nothing to buy..... anyone who could afford all this crap, has already bought one of this crap
2) Best Buy, and other outlets do not offer anything unique (no reason to go there) all the TVs are the same specs, you go online pick one and its at your door in 3~5 days no tax, no shipping. (most of the time)
If you want to sell more crap, get rid of the sales taxes and those stupid muni meters I can't Fing stand them what Fag thought of those things???? you can't even walk to the damned thing without getting a ticket for the time it takes you to walk back and forth and wait in line.
3) Everyone is unemployed, who the fuck is going to buy all this crap?
4) Insurance companies are sucking America dry we need a legal cap on the % rates they can charge because the new laws have essentially turned them into monopolies that can gouge us for whatever the fuck they want (especially workers comp), workers comp has essentially wiped out all our discretionary funds this year.... we have pretty much NOTHING left that we can spend on anything other than food and fuel, we hardly make pay-roll.... and work is slow.... very slow... we look at one project started and completed every 3 ~ 4 months on average and 50~65% of the money spent on the project probably goes to insurance companies and other stupid overhead expenses that we have no control over thanks to the scam insurance industry Obama created.
I can say I am blessed because I do not want or need anything from any major outlets, this season, the only new things we purchased and brought into the house were.... food items and the occasional pack of vitamins and a scarf or two... thats about it.... I can't even think of Gifts for anyone because everyone already has every stupid pointless thing you could own.
So I'm just gona print some greeting cards on printer paper and tape it to a bottle of booze for everyone...... what else can you buy?
It's been obvious for many years that those who go to Black Friday sales are the lowest classes, poorly dressed, poorly mannered and poorly behaved. Those with SES and Internet stay home and shop online.
Brick and Mortars will be bottom feeding this lower cohort, forever.
i went to target this morning for a quick 2 items. no crowds at all. i run an online business and we are busy as shit this weekend and have a crazy monday tomorrow
As supported here...
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/black-friday-weekend-spending-a-disas...