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| FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2014 file photo, Target shoppers Kelly Foley, left, Debbie Winslow, center, and Ann Rich use a smartphone to look at a competitor's prices while shopping shortly after midnight on Black Friday, in South Portland, Maine. The Black Friday shopping weekend may be losing its mojo. A survey of shoppers released Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014, by the National Retail Federation shows how early discounting, more online shopping and an improving economy have fewer people shopping on the weekend that kicks off the holiday shopping season. |
NEW YORK (AP) -- Black Friday fatigue is setting in.
Early
discounting, more online shopping and a mixed economy meant fewer
people shopped over Thanksgiving weekend, the National Retail Federation
said Sunday.
Overall, 133.7 million people
shopped in stores and online over the four-day weekend, down 5.2 percent
from last year, according to a survey of 4,631 people conducted by
Prosper Insights & Analytics for the trade group.
Total
spending for the weekend is expected to fall 11 percent to $50.9
billion from an estimated $57.4 billion last year, the trade group
estimated.
Part of the reason is that Target,
J.C. Penney, Macy's, Wal-Mart and other major retailers pushed fat
discounts as early as Halloween. Some opened stores even earlier on
Thanksgiving. All that stole some thunder from Black Friday and the rest
of the weekend.
Still, the preliminary data
makes retailers worried that shoppers remain frugal despite improving
employment and falling gas prices.
Matt Shay,
the trade group's CEO, said he thinks people benefiting from the
recovery may not feel the need to fight crowds to get the deepest
discount on a TV or toaster. And those who feel like the recession never
ended may not have the money and will stretch out what they spend
through Christmas.
And shoppers are still feeling the effects of high food prices and stagnant wages.
"While
they're more optimistic, they're very cautious," Shay said. "If the
deals are not right for them, they're not going to spend."
Bottom line: Expect more deep discounts, all season long.
"Every day will be Black Friday. Every minute will be Cyber Monday," he said.
That
could be what it takes to get shoppers to open their wallets for the
holiday shopping season, which accounts for about 20 percent of annual
retail sales.
Besides economic factors, people
are becoming more discerning when they shop. Armed with smartphones
and
price-comparison apps, they know what's a good deal - and what's not.
Kimani
Brown, 39, of New York City, was among the Black Friday defectors.
After four years of braving the crowds, the sales failed to lure him out
this year.
"I consider myself a smart
shopper. And it's not as alluring as it used to be," Brown said. "It's a
marketing tool, and I don't want to be pulled into it."
He also said the frenzy pushed him to overspend, and he paid the price in January on his credit card statement.
Instead, he said he will look online Monday, the online shopping day often called Cyber Monday.
Some
who went shopping on Thanksgiving felt they were doing it against their
will. Cathyliz Lopez of New York City said she felt forced to shop on
the holiday.
"It's ruining the spirit of
Thanksgiving," the 20-year-old said Thursday. "But I was checking all
the ads, and the best deals were today."
The
National Retail Federation is still predicting a 4.1 percent increase in
sales for the season. That would be the highest increase since the 4.8
percent gain in 2011.
Some stores and malls had reason to be optimistic.
Dan
Jasper, a spokesman at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, said
customer counts are up 5 to 6 percent for the four-day weekend. One
plus: Shoppers were buying more for themselves, a sign of optimism.
"They felt confident in the economy," he said.
CEOs
at Target and Toys R Us said they saw shoppers not just focusing on the
doorbuster deals but throwing extra items in their carts.
Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren told The Associated Press on Friday that he's hoping lower gas prices will help spending.
"There's reason to believe that confidence should continue to grow. That should be good for discretionary spending," he said.
Some of those discretionary dollars are migrating online.
Target
said Thanksgiving saw a 40 percent surge in online sales and was its
biggest online sales day ever.
And Wal-Mart reported Thanksgiving was
its second-highest online day ever, topped only by Cyber Monday last
year.
From Nov. 1 through Friday, $22.7
billion has been spent online, a 15 percent increase from last year,
according to research firm comScore. On Thanksgiving, online sales
surged 32 percent, while Black Friday online sales jumped 26 percent.
In
stores, shoppers spent $9.1 billion on Black Friday, according to
research firm ShopperTrak, down 7 percent from last year. That was
partly due to a 24 percent surge in Thanksgiving sales, to $3.2 billion.
ShopperTrak estimated that in-store sales for the two days combined slipped half a percent to $12.29 billion.
