US Store Sales Down Slightly For Thanksgiving And Black Friday

Take Pia Tracy, who bought some items at Pier 1 home furnishings store over the weekend.

Introduced to these shores five years ago by online giant Amazon, the USA phenomenon that is the one-day sales bonanza had triggered additional safety measures in the wake of scenes last year which at times bore more resemblance to a riot than a pre-Christmas shopping trip. Almost 102 million people said they shopped in stores over the Thanksgiving weekend, while 103 million shopped online.

For Black Friday, known for its early-morning lines to snare those limited-quantity doorbusters and jammed parking lots, it was at least the second straight year that in-store sales have fallen, according to ShopperTrak.

NRF President and Chief Executive Officer Matthew Shay said the outlook for the holiday season remained solid, given the low unemployment rate, lower gasoline prices and other factors.

Adobe released online sales totals and insights for Black Friday and Thanksgiving last night, at about 7:30 p.m. EST.

One survey result is still comparable to last year, and supports the idea that shopping is less concentrated on days with popular names attached: More than 121 million adults will shop on Cyber Monday, and that’s down from 126.9 million last year.

Brick and mortar stores experienced a sharp decline in sales on Black Friday, but online sales were seen mounting with a 14% increase in the online shopping on Thanksgiving Day. That figure had been down for two straight years, dropping 11 percent to $50.9 billion in 2014.

“Holiday shopping started well in advance of Thanksgiving weekend this year, but there’s no question that people were still incredibly eager to get their hands on the deals that retailers were offering on electronics, apparel, toys and even small appliances”, said Prosper’s Principal Analyst Pam Goodfellow.

The Metropolitan Police advised Black Friday customers to use a different password for each online retailer they visit after a man was arrested on Thursday for trying to breach Tesco’s online system using usernames and passwords obtained from previous hacks.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) projects that around 22.3 percent of shoppers will make their purchases on Thanksgiving, which is an improvement of last year’s figures of only 18.3 percent.

On Sunday, comScore, a retail analytics firm, publishes a projection of USA online purchases made through desktop computers on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Following initial numbers, ShopperTrak maintains its estimated 2.4 percent increase in sales for brick-and-mortar retail during the 2015 holiday season. And in the last few years, they’ve opened locations on Thanksgiving Day, a once-sacred holiday from retail. “I think we’ll see that trend with smartwatches this year”, he said. As the anti-consumerism voice grows, says Timothy Leonard, it becomes harder for retailers to ignore.

He said the store offered discounts on many items, but there was one item that sold out right away on Thanksgiving.