The U.S. holiday shopping season has officially begun, with shoppers
crowding stores for post-Thanksgiving sales in a yearly event nicknamed
"Black Friday."
The competition for the best deals took an aggressive turn Thursday
night, when a woman at a Walmart in Los Angeles used pepper spray on
other customers to gain an advantage.
Black Friday is the day many stores sharply discount high-priced items
such as electronics and the latest new toys. Its name signifies
retailers' expectations of high sales, as profits were once recorded in
account books in black ink, while losses were recorded in red.
Stores also open their doors hours earlier than usual, which helps
foster excitement among bargain hunters.
Black Friday is one of the most important days for retail chains because
it indicates what they can expect during the next month of holiday
shopping -- their most lucrative time of year.
But not everyone is in favor of the phenomenon. Protesters with the
anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street movement were encouraging people to
take part in "Buy Nothing Day," a day of protest against consumerism
observed worldwide.
Though there are already plenty of
great deals on everything from e-readers and smartphones to apparel and
toys, Americans know there is only one Black Friday - and the best is
yet to come. According to a preliminary Black Friday shopping survey,
conducted for the National Retail Federation by BIGresearch, up to 152
million people plan to shop Black Friday weekend (Friday, Saturday and
Sunday), higher than the 138 million people who planned to do so last
year. According to the survey, 74 million people say they will
definitely hit the stores and another 77 million are waiting to see if
the bargains are worth braving the cold and the crowds.
“Though many retailers are already touting select Black Friday ads,
there’s no doubt we’ll all be blown away by what retailers still have in
their bag of tricks for shoppers,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew
Shay. “We fully expect to see excited shoppers as early as midnight at
stores around the country, as many holiday shoppers would rather stay up
all night to take advantage of retailers’ Black Friday deals rather than
set their alarm to wake up the next morning.”
For
the first time, NRF asked shoppers how they plan to keep track of
retailers’ holiday sales and promotions announcements. Half (50.5%) will
keep up with advertising circulars throughout the holiday season and
nearly one-third (31.7%) said they will tune in to watch retailers’
holiday commercials. Additionally, nearly one-quarter (23.1%) will seek
out coupon websites like RetailMeNot.com and FatWallet.com, and 32.3
percent will specifically keep track of the email coupons they receive
from retailers.
“Social media will play a big role in how shoppers follow company sales
announcements this holiday season,” said Phil Rist, Executive Vice
President, Strategic Initiatives, BIGresearch. “From Facebook to Twitter
and even group buying sites, ‘social’ retailers may be rewarded this
season in terms of additional holiday sales.”
The survey found 17.3 percent will monitor retailers’ Facebook pages and
11.3 percent will check out group-buying sites like Groupon and
LivingSocial. Of those who own tablet devices and who plan to shop for
or research holiday items this year, one in five (21.3%) will seek out
group buying sites and 31.2 percent will check out retailers’ Facebook
pages.
