Holiday retailing: Mixed signals on Black Friday
The crucial post-Thanksgiving shopping season got off to a record start, with U.S. retailers ringing up $10.3 billion in sales on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving, said Jonathan Birchall in the Financial Times. But the 8.3 percent increase over last year’s sales totals “did not guarantee strong sales for the rest of the holiday season.” One-day price promotions, like a 42-inch flat-screen TV for $800, lured many shoppers into stores. Now, consumers are settling into a waiting game, said Michael Barbaro in The New York Times. “American consumers are trying to outsmart the stores and wait for desperation discounts,” said retail consultant Burt Flickinger.
Worried about a falloff in sales, stores “began pulling out all the stops in an effort to keep up the momentum,” said Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan in The Wall Street Journal. J.C. Penney, for example, greeted shoppers on Black Friday with discount coupons that could only be used the next day. Despite the retail industry’s best efforts, the drop-off in store traffic on Saturday “seemed more marked to me than it did in years past,” said retail analyst Madison Riley. “It could mean we’re heading toward a lukewarm Christmas.”
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