There was much hope for America’s struggling brick-and-mortar retail outlets that was 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 from 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.”
