2011 Holiday Sales

rffrydr · Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:20 am Post subject: 2011 Holiday Sales

FEDEX Sees Thanksgiving To Christmas Shipments Up 12%.
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

rffrydr · Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:16 am Post subject:

Charity, capitalism's safety valve, is back in fashion: layaways being paid anonymously across the land (note the lack of a middleman here and the concentration on a material rather than vital good) and a modern-day Robin Hood has just made an appearance!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheAtlantic/~3/xuAjUrpUJnY/

rffrydr · Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 9:30 pm Post subject:

From $360 to $400 per capita...and, the ace in the hole, 6% or so more bodies shopping....that's how you beat depressions.
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

HenryTo · Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 5:21 pm Post subject:

When Americans feel sad, we shop. Thanksgiving holiday sales up 16% to a record $52.4 billion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-27/u-s-thanksgiving-weekend-sales-increase-16-to-52-4-billion-nrf-says.html

HenryTo · Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 5:09 pm Post subject:

Black Friday sales up a record 6.6% YOY per ShopperTrak. Actually expected more since stores opened at midnight this year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-26/consumers-in-u-s-release-pent-up-demand-amid-brisk-black-friday-traffic.html

HenryTo · Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 6:05 pm Post subject:

No doubt Thanksgiving-inclined retail workers are lamenting this but midnight openings seemed to be a smash so far.
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Midnight Black Friday start likely to become norm

Fri Nov 25, 2011 6:37pm EST

(Reuters) - Earlier than ever store openings at Macy's Inc, Target Corp and Best Buy Inc this year were such hits with shoppers that their midnight start on Black Friday will likely become the norm.

Macy's said about 10,000 people thronged its Manhattan flagship at midnight on Thursday, while a Best Buy store in Union, New Jersey, had people lined up for hours before.

Most retailers last year kicked off Black Friday at 4 a.m. But this year, some decided not to cede an inch of opportunity to rivals. And the strategy seems paid off.

"Now that we're open at midnight, we're getting an entirely different customer," Macy's Chief Executive Terry Lundgren told Reuters, speaking of night owl shoppers under age 30.

More traditional shoppers, who prefer to sleep off turkey dinner before hitting stores, came later in the morning as usual, Lundgren said, giving the chain two waves of customers.

The crowds at Macy's, Target, Best Buy and elsewhere mean midnight openings will be irresistible to more retailers.

"After seeing what I saw last night I can't imagine that this is going to be a one year only shot," said Charlie O'Shea, senior retail analyst at Moody's.

A major benefit is that it gives shoppers more choices.

"I did Black Friday at Target (in a prior year), I stood in line from 12:30 to 6 o'clock in the morning. I don't have to do it this year," said Desiree Schoolfield, a 49 year old public servant from Queens shopping at a Toys R Us in Manhattan Wednesday evening.

For the retailers, there are competitive considerations in what promises to be a tough holiday season.

Soon after Macy's announced it would move up its Black Friday opening to midnight, rival Kohl's Corp followed. And it would be unthinkable for Best Buy to be closed while Target is open, and vice versa.

Still, some bucked the trend this year and suffered little if any consequence.

J.C. Penney Co Inc stuck to its 4 a.m. opening, with the only apparent effect of rivals' earlier opening being a morning shopper traffic peak that came minutes earlier than last year, said Penney executive Mike Thielmann.

At 4:15 am on Friday, the parking lot at North Point Mall in suburban Atlanta, which has a Penney and Macy's, was 80 percent full, hours after 1,500 lined up for Macy's opening, said general manager Nick Nicolosi. And the Penney at Newport Center in Jersey City, N.J., was packed in the early morning.

Still, analysts say it is just a matter of time before the competitive pressure prompts holdouts to open at midnight too, in a continuation of "store hour creep" that has seen Black Friday sales start earlier and earlier. Only a few years ago, a 6 a.m. start seemed outrageously early.

HenryTo · Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:09 pm Post subject:

Thanksgiving Black Friday starting as anticipated. Lines are much longer than those last year but of course sales numbers still need to be tallied:

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/25/pf/black_friday/index.htm

rffrydr · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:15 pm Post subject:

When the wait is now two days and nights to get one of 30 vintage flat-screens who needs it? BB Xbox bundle will keep 'em lined up--but that's a social phenom.

Now BF leaks earlier into the week and is suberted by onliners..... I was at Target and Costco last last night and they were full--all on their own. As usual we'll wait for the fat lady.
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

HenryTo · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:47 pm Post subject:

The Motley Fool previews Black Friday shopping season.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/11/23/its-going-to-be-a-black-friday-like-no-other.aspx

rffrydr · Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:05 pm Post subject:

Apple, Netflix and now Amazon not matching "whispers" taking out a leg under the market. Economically speaking we're cruzing right along.
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!