Friday, November 28, 2008
Editorial: A new meaning for Black Friday
Traditionally, today is the day retailers' books move out of the red. This year looks bleak.
From the RoundTable blog
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Most years, shoppers and retailers alike look forward to today with joyful anticipation.
Shoppers yearn to hit as many advertised bargains as possible before their feet and arms ache under the burden of heavy packages.
Retailers long to count the profits at day's end as Black Friday traditionally tilts the bookkeeping ledgers into the black for the year.
But this isn't most years. Today, green holiday wreaths might as well be exchanged for black wreaths of mourning. Bricks-and-mortar stores' expectations for today have been scaled way back. Doing as well as last year would be exceptional. Online stores still expect during the newer shopping holiday of Cyber Monday to increase sales over last year, but growth is predicted to be sluggish at best.
Lighter cash registers the past few months have tallied the loss in consumer confidence and the tightening of credit. Lower-end stores, like Wal-Mart, have found shoppers put off buying necessities until pay day. And middle-end stores, like J.C. Penney, have noticed that sales spike at pay days, a trend reserved before for discount stores.
In response to cash-only consumers, some stores are bringing back old-fashioned lay-away so shoppers can make payments in time to place the presents under the tree. This is a reversal from patterns of recent years in which shoppers whipped out the plastic and charged their way through the holiday.
Even shoppers with untapped credit limits are restrained by the recession and concern the economy may worsen still. People worried whether their jobs will last in the new year won't clamor to buy the latest electronic gadgets. Perhaps it's a sign of the times that there has yet to emerge a must-have, ridiculously priced item that prompts parents to scurry from store to store.
Instead, people are talking about how spending time with family and friends holds more value and lasts longer than brightly wrapped trinkets.
Given the uncertainty of when the economy might rebound, it would be foolish to suggest Americans shop their way out of this crisis. And yet, without a robust retail season, fewer stores will survive. The usual fervor that generally accompanies this day is tempered by a society attempting to live within its means.
