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发帖数: 11530 | 1 Thanksgiving Deal Hunt Draws Millions Away From Dinner
By Lindsey Rupp Nov 27, 2014 8:41 PM CT
Shoppers wait in line as snow falls outside a Target Corp. store ahead of
Black Friday... Read More
Terrance Martin, a 42-year-old truck driver, lined up at a Best Buy Co. (BBY
) store in Paramus, New Jersey, at 7 a.m. today to score an almost $350
discount on a 50-inch Panasonic television.
“It was worth it for that kind of deal,” said Martin, who’s from nearby
Fair Lawn. Even though he spent almost 10 hours waiting for the store to
open, he didn’t miss the holiday entirely: His sister brought him turkey
and yams.
Martin was one of the 25.6 million Americans that the National Retail
Federation expected to hit the stores or shop online today, drawn by stores
offering discounts on holiday gifts earlier than ever. Millions more are
projected to shop tomorrow through Sunday, kicking off a holiday season that
the NRF forecasts will be the best in three years, helped by falling
unemployment, rising wages and lower gas prices.
Shoppers seeking bargains tonight had plenty of options. J.C. Penney Co. (
JCP) unlocked its doors at 5 p.m., compared with 8 p.m. in 2013. Macy’s Inc
. (M) and Target Corp. opened at 6 p.m., two hours earlier than last year.
“Being first is incredibly important,” said Pat Dermody, president of
Retale, a mobile application that aggregates circulars from major retailers.
“If you’re first, you’ve got customers who are full of spirit and full
of cash.”
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
A customer loads a television into a shopping cart at a Target Corp. store
ahead of... Read More
Many consumers already may have begun shopping as retailers experimented
with spreading their deals throughout the week. Express Inc. (EXPR) began
offering 50 percent off everything starting Nov. 25 through noon tomorrow,
and Target rolled out pre-Black Friday deals of up to 60 percent off on some
items.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is meting out its holiday bargains over the
course of five days. The retailer’s “New Black Friday” event includes
sales in stores and on Walmart.com that began at 12:01 a.m. today and will
run through Cyber Monday.
“They took what was a small, compressed event and made a week out of it,”
Rod Sides, who tracks retail for consulting firm Deloitte LLP in Charlotte,
North Carolina, said in an interview. “Everybody used to have a battle
strategy. Folks are not as focused on Black Friday as they once were.”
About 140 million people are expected to shop in stores and online today
through Sunday, about the same number as last year, according to the NRF, a
Washington-based trade group. Retail sales in November and December may rise
4.1 percent this year, beating last year’s 3.1 percent gain, the
organization said.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
A customer puts a bag of purchases into a shopping cart at a Wal-Mart Stores
Inc.... Read More
Discounting Frenzy
Sales are already getting a hand from consumer sentiment that’s the highest
since before the recession, boosting confidence that trend will continue
through the holiday season. Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70
percent of the economy, grew at a 2.2 percent annualized rate last quarter,
exceeding estimates for a 1.8 percent improvement. The gain was spread
across durable and non-durable goods.
Consumer spending also may be buoyed by gasoline dropping below $3, a
psychological barrier that may help open up wallets, said Bob Drbul, a New
York-based retail analyst at Nomura Securities International. The average
cost of a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.81 earlier this week, the lowest
level in four years, according to the automobile group AAA.
To capitalize on the extra spending money, retailers are trying to one-up
each other. Wal-Mart will sell an RCA tablet for $29, DVDs for $1.96 and a
50-inch high-definition television for $218. Best Buy Co., meanwhile, will
offer a 55-inch Samsung 4K television for $899, down from $1,400.
Not that the discounting frenzy is anything new, said Retale’s Dermody, who
’s based in Chicago.
“I wouldn’t say, on a category basis, there are discounts that are
outrageous this year compared to what they were last year,” she said.
Holiday shopping is key for retailers, with sales in November and December
accounting for about 19 percent of annual revenue, according to the NRF. The
term Black Friday is believed to derive from the myth that retailers didn’
t become profitable until this day each year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lindsey Rupp in New York at lrupp2@
bloomberg.net |
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