Of course today is Friday the 13th, but there is another Friday coming soon that more Americans seem to be interested in: “Black Friday,” the ominously named sales event that takes place the day after Thanksgiving. And no, Black Friday doesn’t refer to the possibility of being stampeded to death by throngs of impatient shoppers; it’s the day when retailers hope to get “in the black” financially, as opposed to being “in the red.” For many stores, Black Friday is the day they reach profitability for the entire year, so the holiday shopping propaganda promoting big sales events is a serious matter, indeed.
Google Trends has been showing strong public interest in Black Friday sales events since Halloween, and with Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and other stores seeing their big sales details “leaked” (yeah, right!) on websites like Black-Friday.net and others, this interest seems to be reaching a fever pitch. According to various studies, up to 50% of all shopping done during the holiday season is not for gift-giving, but rather purchases made on the bargain shopper’s own behalf. Of course it only makes sense to put off purchases of big-ticket items like flat-screen TVs and laptops until they are the cheapest they’ll be all year. This season, like Christmas 2008, the sales story that many seem to be interested in is how low Blu-ray DVD players will go in price, with predictions of several retailers offering the players for as little as $49. Target and Wal-Mart are also expected to sell Blu-ray discs for as low as $8.99.
Target seems willing to make the deepest discounts, offering shockingly low prices on many appliances, with items like pressed sandwich makers, coffee machines and slow roasters getting a markdown to—are you ready for this?—$3! The idea is to get as many shoppers as possible into stores with these low, low prices and hope that they’ll be susceptible to make many more purchases. Sounds good in theory, but $3 for a coffee maker? Clearly Target would be losing money on each and every sale. A savvy shopper would simply buy one or two items in one store and mosey on over to the next price-slashing emporium to pick up a few more, avoiding the temptation to spend money on anything he or she didn’t specifically come for.
This may sound, er, un-American, but if household penny-pinching this season is anything like 2008’s totally bust Christmas shopping spree, there may be a different meaning for Black Friday this year after all the dust settles.
Cross posting this from Brand X