Hope you guys aren't expecting any big-ticket items.
Black Friday spending surveys are dropping left and right, but keep in mind it’s still way too early to determine whether Black Friday retail sales results can actually be deemed a success or not.
According to WSJ’s summary of Black Friday, big bargains drew people to the malls, but they remained reluctant to return to their free-spending days. From the Journal:
Retailers succeeded in enticing deal-hungry shoppers into their stores on Friday, but at the checkout lines many people were sticking to the most deeply discounted items.
That may prove to be a disappointment to executives at the nation’s major chain stores, which have been battered by the recession. Many have been hoping that, once in the stores, consumers would spend a little more freely than they did a year ago.
The Journal also quotes Best Buy’s (BBY) CEO Brian Dunn saying consumers were flocking to lower-priced items. “This is not a year where wallets are expanding,” Dunn tells WSJ. “There will be winners and losers this season in retail, and the differences will be pronounced.”
Retailers not only offered big discounts for Black Friday, but ended up extending promotions through the weekend, potentially suggesting they’re trying to counter a post-Black Friday lull or didn’t sell as much as they hoped.
“We did see some retailers execute promotions that were more reactionary in nature,” KeyBanc says.
Gap’s (GPS) Banana Republic went 25% off the entire store on Saturday and Sunday, with store managers receiving an early morning email about the sale, the firm says.
“Ann Taylor (ANN) ran its Black Friday 40% off sale the entire day, rather than just Friday morning. Aeropostale (ARO) also ran its 50%-70% off sale the entire weekend,” KeyBanc adds.
Store representatives weren’t immediately available for comment.
It seems like the discounts attracted more visitors than originally anticipated. The National Retail Federation reported 195 million US shoppers visited stores and websites over the weekend, which marked a 13% year-over-year increase.
But average spending fell about 8% and overall sales increased only 0.5% from a year ago, showing lots of folks “came out to cherry pick the biggest bargains – but not much else,” FusionIQ CEO Barry Ritholtz says.
“We also know savings are up, unemployment is up and consumer confidence is down,” he writes at The Big Picture. “Hardly the basis for a very merry retail season.”
(Karen Talley contributed to this post.)
