Christian Retailing

BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND RINGS UP $22.8 BILLION IN SALES Print Email
Sunday, 28 November 2004 07:00 PM America/New_York

A National Retail Federation (NRF) survey conducted by BIGresearch found that the average shopper spent $265.15 last weekend, bringing total Black Friday weekend spending to $22.8 billion. The study, released Sunday, showed that 133 million shoppers flooded stores, most hunting for popular electronics, clothing and music.

The $22.8 billion shoppers spent over the weekend will represent more than 10% of the $220 billion expected in total holiday sales this year. Though Black Friday weekend was a success for many retailers, stores recognize that the bulk of holiday shopping is yet to come.

"Retailers know that the holiday season is not a sprint, it's a marathon," said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. "Black Friday weekend is just the beginning of a month-long race to the finish line."

Of those who shopped, many headed out on Friday (64.6%), but consumers also were shopping on Saturday (54.1%) and Sunday (25.3%). In addition, 9 million people got a head start on the crowds by shopping on Thanksgiving Day.

Morris's Christian Book Nook in Alma, Ga., was one of those stores that opened Thanksgiving Day to accommodate shoppers.

Regina Andrews, a spokeswoman for Morris's, did not have weekend sales figures but reported a lot of traffic on Thursday but a mediocre weekend overall from visitors who primarily were getting ideas for gifts.

"Friday was OK," Andrews said. "On Thursday, we had a really good sale that evening. I think sales were pretty good. Friday was mediocre, and Saturday was probably close to the same as Friday, according to traffic."

But, Andrews said, the bookstore, which is connected with a gift and interior store, said business was as expected.

"I believe it's going to pick up," she added. "We have customers who come back each year who have been very faithful in giving us their business."

According to the NRF survey, 49.1% of consumers purchased clothing or clothing accessories this weekend, while 45.5% bought books, CDs, DVDs, videos and video games. Also, 31.2% of shoppers purchased electronics.

A variety of retailers benefited from favorable weather and heavy discounting this weekend. According to the survey, the majority of shoppers headed to discounters (61.8%), though department stores (44.3%) and specialty stores (40.5%) also saw strong traffic. As expected, online retailers also had a solid weekend, with nearly one in three consumers (29.3%) choosing to do some of their holiday shopping via the Internet.

However, weaker-than-expected holiday shopping forced Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Saturday to cut its projected sales increase for November by more than half. The world's largest retailer estimated that the month's sales at U.S. stores that have been open at least a year would be .7% higher than last November, well below the 2% to 4% range that the company had said it expected last week. The new projection was based on four weeks' worth of sales, from Oct. 30 through Friday, the Bentonville, Ark-based company said in a statement on its Web site.