Black Friday Spending Pegged at $45 Billion

This year’s Black Friday results were quite impressive. Black Friday has become sort of an American tradition, as a way of kick starting the Christmas holiday season the day after thanksgiving. Millions of shoppers hit the stores, chasing deals and burning calories put on the day before. The National Retail Federation estimated that shoppers spent about $45 billion on Black Friday. As the law of supply and demand shows, as prices decrease, demand increases. Black Friday shows this is an exaggerated model. With prices so low, people resorted to drastic measures, nearly a quarter of all Black Friday shoppers were out waiting by 4am. It is easy to understand why demand is so high on Black Friday considering the deals; both Target and Sears advertised 40 inch 1080p televisions for fewer than 500 dollars. With prices so low, demand rose even higher than ever before. The NRF said around 212 million shoppers hit the shelves on Friday spending an average of $365.34, compared to last year’s numbers of 195 million people who spent an average of $343.31. As the data shows, low prices led to a drastic increase in demand from previous years. The article talked about the factors playing into the rise in demand on black Friday, and clearly stated that consumer confidence was not really a contributor. People are still concerned with the economy and I think that with so many people tight on cash, they wanted to make the best of the sales as they could. NRF Chief Matthew Shay said it was important for retailers to keep the momentum going with incentives and sales that people just can’t pass up. It will be interesting to see what happens with both consumers and producers in need of a good deal. I think that given the current economic situation we can expect to see continued low prices in order to keep consumers jumping on deals. The CEA reported that the average consumer will spend $232 on electronics this year, which is five percent higher than last year, and the highest figure the study has even seen in its 17 years of service. I also found it interesting that with prices so low, and demand so high that shoppers were willing to leave their families behind on thanksgiving and hit the stores. Surveys show that 22.3 million people went shopping on thanksgiving this year, more than doubling over the past 5 years. With prices so low and the economy in such a bad state, people are willing to do anything in order to save money. An investigator from TVB narrowly escaped being caught up in a chaotic shopping scene that resembled a scene from death race 2000. It is impressive to see how many people go to such lengths to take advantage of the deals offered on Black Friday. I think we can continue to see further low prices in efforts to keep consumer demand high in the current economy.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/109880