Investing Blog

Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving and the largest retailing days of the year saw a 3% improvement in the amount of money that was spent this year compared to last. This would ordinarily be seen as a positive but 3% is the slowest growth recorded on Black Friday since 2005.

All things considered a 3% decline is virtually nothing for a one day statistic. This could have been made up by the fact that prices were lower, consumers bought more items with a smaller price tag, or that the total number of stores as a whole has dropped since 2005. Colder or warmer weather could also affect the number of people that went out on Black Friday to chase the deep discounts.

Using statistics from the American Research Group it appears that as a whole shoppers are planning to spend considerably less this year and are more likely to wait for sales to make purchases. The group polled 1100 adults over the phone in every state across the US.

The results were clear, Americans plan to spend just $431 on Christmas gifts this year as per the survey. This is down a whopping 50% from a year ago when shoppers planned to spend $859. It is also interesting to note that only 40% of those polled had started their Christmas shopping, this is the lowest recording all the way out to 1998. American’s haven’t yet spent money for presents and clearly won’t be.

The current spending amounts are the lowest since 1991 during the last major housing bust and ensuing recession. The study was done from November 10-13 of this year. If anything is certain, this data is going to be a bust for retailers. Short all the way to January.

Investing, Round Up