Shoppers took to stores across the world on a Black Friday that appeared to be subdued compared to prior years, looking for discounted electronics, clothing and household goods in the kickoff to the holiday shopping season crucial to big retailers.
Brokerage TD Cowen lowered its US holiday spending estimate to two per cent to 3pc growth, from 4pc to 5pc, as it forecast flat Black Friday traffic. Discounts in October and November removed the excitement and urgency of Black Friday.
“People have already got what they want,” David Klink, senior analyst at Huntington Private Bank, which owns shares of Walmart and Target. “There are only so many big screen TVs and Alexa (Amazon voice assistants) you can buy.”
With many consumers squeezed by persistent inflation and high interest rates, US holiday spending is expected to rise at the slowest pace in five years. Most major retailers slashed their seasonal hiring. Retailers will likely continue to discount throughout the season.
A record 130.7 million people were expected to shop in stores and online in the US on Black Friday, the National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates. But at 6am at a Walmart in New Milford, Connecticut, the parking lot was only half full.
“It’s a lot quieter this year, a lot quieter,” said shopper Theresa Forsberg, who visits the same five stores with her family at dawn every Black Friday. She was at a nearby Kohl’s store at 5am.
In Paramus, New Jersey, crowds at the Garden State Plaza mall were thinner than prior years, according to Michael Brown, a partner at consulting firm Kearney, who has checked shopping activity for the past 35 years.
“It wasn’t the good old fashioned kick-the-doors-down-type” shopping event this year, he said. Mall goers “were carrying a bag or two, not the armfuls that you would see in pre-pandemic years. They are not blowing the budget today.”
US shoppers plan to spend an average $875 on holiday purchases – $42 more than last year – with clothing, gift cards and toys at the top of most shopping lists, according to a survey of 8,424 adults conducted in early November by the NRF, a US retail trade group.
Retailers from Macy’s to Amazon launch deals as early as October and offer additional discounts closer to Christmas, Macy’s chief executive Jeff Gennette told investors this month.
Best Buy was offering between $100 and $1,600 off electronics including laptops, flat-screen TVs and KitchenAid mixers after telling investors this week that shoppers are holding off on big-ticket purchases.
Adobe expected to have the best deals on televisions, with discounts of 22pc. Clothing, appliances, sporting goods and furniture will also have deep discounts but prices will go even lower by Cyber Monday, it predicts.
A downturn in luxury spending prompted department stores, including Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom, to offer steep discounts on items such as Balenciaga shoes and Oscar de la Renta earrings.
&uuid=(email))