By Shelly Banjo
Retail spending over the Thanksgiving weekend fell 11%,
according to the main industry trade group, a sign that the annual
four-day shopping bonanza may be losing some of its punch.
The decline, the second annual drop in a row, came in part
because retailers started offering deals in the days and even weeks
before, giving shoppers ample opportunities to snag discounts
without having to endure the lines and crowds that typify Black
Friday.
Target Corp., for instance, offered its first round of so-called
Black Friday deals on Nov. 10, while Wal-Mart Stores Inc. kicked
off its holiday promotions at the start of the month.
Total spending from Thursday through Sunday sank 11% from a year
earlier to $50.9 billion, according to the National Retail
Federation, which surveyed 4,600 consumers on Friday and
Saturday.
Shoppers spent an average of $380.95, down 6.4% from a year
earlier.
The trade group still expects total holiday sales through the
end of the year to rise 4.1%.
Shoppers "don't feel like they have to get out that one day or
miss spending the holidays with their families," said Elissa
Margolis, senior vice president for Disney Store North America at
Walt Disney Co. The company, which operates more than 200 Disney
stores in North America, began offering promotions on items like
dolls and costumes from the "Frozen" and "Star Wars" movies online
and in its stores on the Monday before Thanksgiving.
This year, brick-and-mortar retailers have stepped up their Web
offerings with more promotions like free shipping, rolling sales
through the month and price-matching online rivals such as
Amazon.com Inc. The more robust Web selection and discounts have
allowed shoppers to take advantage of Black Friday discounts
without interrupting time at home.
The retail trade group said the number of people who went
shopping over the four-day weekend declined 5.2% from last year to
134 million.
The weak results contrast with improvements elsewhere in the
economy, such as decreasing joblessness, a rebounding housing
market and two quarters of strong economic growth, and they suggest
that even with an economy on the mend many consumers remain thrifty
five years after the recession. Consumers have become much more
dutiful about researching their purchases on the Web to find the
best price and have also become more disciplined, limiting their
impulse buys.
Barbara Holmes, a 37-year-old pharmacy technician from Trenton,
N.J., went to RadioShack in Morrisville, Pa., to buy her daughter a
new LG phone priced at $39.99. She went only for the one deal and
planned to shop online for other needs, like clothing. Ms. Holmes
shopped at Wal-Mart last year but was skipping the crowds and long
lines this year. "I ain't going up there with all the crazy
people," she said.
The sales drop this weekend could sting retailers, which had
been generating a 10th of their holiday sales over that weekend,
but it doesn't mean retailers are going to give up the annual
shopping ritual anytime soon.
"Finishing Thanksgiving dinner and offering sales is like
ringing the bell that alerts people it's gift-giving season, and
that will always be the case," said Steve Davis, CEO of Rue La La,
a fashion discounter that is majority owned by Kynetic LLC.
For others, it's a matter of staying in the game alongside the
big retailers that spend heavily on promotions.
"It's really important for us to stay out there at all times to
drive business, even if that means starting the sales earlier and
earlier," said Jon Abt, co-president of Abt Electronics &
Appliances in Glenview, Ill., which takes in a quarter of its sales
online. Sales over Thursday, Friday and Saturday rose 40% online
and 20% in the store from the year before, he said.
Many retailers offered the same discounts on the Web as they
offered in stores. The Internet didn't attract more shoppers or
more spending than last year, according to NRF's closely watched
survey. Online shopping accounted for 42% of spending over the
four-day period, down from 44% last year, the trade group said,
with the average amount consumers spent online declining 10% from a
year ago to $159.55.
The survey, conducted by a third party Friday and Saturday,
polled 4,631 consumers. Other forecasters came up with slightly
different results.
ShopperTrak, which monitors shopper visits at tens of thousands
of brick-and-mortar sites, said sales over Thursday and Friday
slipped 0.5%. Data from International Business Machines Corp.,
based on its survey of online transactions at 800 retail websites,
showed online sales rose more slowly on Thanksgiving and Black
Friday than they did last year.
Holiday-shopping figures often differ as forecasters use
different methodologies to collect different sets of data.
The NRF survey, which covers both online and brick-and-mortar
sales, asks shoppers directly how much money they have spent over
the weekend rather than relying on estimates of retailer sales
figures. ShopperTrak counts only transactions in brick-and-mortar
stores, and IBM provides only online sales.
Wal-Mart and Target cited strong online traffic on Thanksgiving
Day. "Historical definitions of Black Friday and Cyber Monday are
evolving and we are just answering to what the consumer is
demanding," said Neil Ashe, CEO of global e-commerce at
Wal-Mart.
For instance, this year Wal-Mart plans to offer what it calls an
"evening edition" for its Cyber Monday sale after it found that a
fifth of shoppers don't shop online until after work and in the
evening.
Meanwhile, the slow economic recovery and increase of online
sales following the recession has left consumers like Amanda
Walters, 25, and her sister Arleen Chaunce, 29, better trained to
research products and buy only at the best price.
After an early Thanksgiving meal, the sisters took their
husbands, four kids, and their grandmother to a Wal-Mart in Valley
Stream, N.Y., at 2:30 p.m. with one item in mind: a flat-screen
television.
The family of nine waited in line outside the store for nearly
four hours before they were let inside and snagged a 50-inch
Emerson TV for $218 and a 65-inch Vizio TV for $648, "probably a
couple hundred dollars discount," Ms. Chaunce said, based on the
prices she saw throughout the year. She recently moved to Brooklyn
from New Jersey and had been waiting for months to find a deal on a
new TV.
Her sister also picked up a new TV but said she'd do the rest of
her Christmas shopping online. "It's much easier than this. The
crowds are crazy here," Ms. Walters said.
Drew Fitzgerald contributed to this article.
Write to Shelly Banjo at shelly.banjo@wsj.com
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