My family and I were out shopping late Sunday afternoon. We went to Target and Best Buy. I was really surprised how few shoppers were in the stores. Now, it wasn't Friday 8 AM, but it was still the first weekend of the Holiday Shopping Season.
This weekend was supposed to be their big payday for the year. With all of the employees I saw standing around at Best Buy, I could imagine it wasn't too profitable.
There were some deals. The long lines came and went.
“What's next?” asks the consumer. “What irresistible deal do you have for me today?”
What I was looking for — a $600 item — was cheaper on eBay by about $100, new in box, Buy It Now. If it were close to the same price I'd have gotten it at Best Buy. It wasn't, and they would have had to order it. I might as well get it cheaper on eBay if I have to wait.
Only a few cashiers were open at Target. But then again, there weren't many customers there either. Nowhere near the droves I expected for one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year. I've seen it busier other weekends, actually.
This slowness isn't bad for consumers, because if sales look like they'll be weak, the deals should pick up. But it's probably bad for the bottom lines of the retailers.
If what little sluggishness I saw this past weekend represents a bigger picture, then Wall Street won't be too happy with these companies in the new year.
I have seen this happen before. Sunday after T'Giving can be slow at many places. People have exhausted themselves the two days before and no longer want to shop. The other possibility is they have gone to church to ask forgiveness for how much money they spent.
I didn't go the mall but I did go to Walmart and it was painful wading through the droves of people. It's been busier there for a while ever since they starting selling blowup Santas in October. I guess that's their insurance that the droves will keep coming back. Maybe we'll see next year's x-mas decorations in January?
Of course less people are shopping. They've had to re-allocate spending money for gasoline and home heating. I've also notice an increase in groceries due to higher shipping costs.
If you'll look at real figures instead of just one anecdotal shopping area, you'll notice that day-after and weekend-after Thanksgiving is not really that big a deal. For sure, day after turkey is a big deal (my medium-sized consumer electronics chain does 5-6x better that day than any other single day in the year), but real christmas business is mid-late December.
Greg: Good point. I found some data to corroborate your statement. Granted it's five years old but I can't see people's procrastination changing too much. 😉
Things were still pretty quiet though. Anecdotal, yes, but I still would have expected more people than I saw.
Maybe it was just my store, then, because that weekend we saw a 20% increase in sales volume over last year, and that's pretty average for the whole chain.