Everyone already has all the flat screen TVs they can cram into their house, CD's became cassette tapes 3 years ago, DVDs are joining CD's. Laptop sales are falling.

Outside of tablets there is nothing anyone wants to get them to run into the stores at 12 am after thanksgiving other than ritual.

only in america do we give thanks at thanksgiving for what we have and the very next day trample each other on black friday to get more

I went out this weekend and got 2 things by special request. That was it. While I was out, I saw lots of traffic but a lot of strategic shopping - people were going after one specific item and getting out. No loading up the cart, no "... well, since we're here we can also get" purchases - just lots of "get in, get it, get the hell out."

In fact, just got back from Wal-Mart. Lots of Black Friday stuff clearly marked as such still sitting on the display floor. Lots of shopping for food and necessities (grooming, pharmacy, etc.), little to nothing in electronics and households. Goes back to what I was seeing early on: the "deals" that were out there by and large weren't that great, and certainly no "that's really new and hot, I gotta have it" items.

The stores here where a yawner. Parking lots at the most popular retailers where no more than 5% full yesterday (Saturday 11/14). Store shelves where 100% stocked too. All I could hear were crickets. The whole thing felt a bit surreal in fact.

Dh went Target on Friday morning about 7am. He had a very specific list: 2 electic throws, 1 reg throw & a lunch box. Came to $50.50 after my 5% discount; then got a $10 giftcard for spending over $50. That was it for our BF weekend shopping.

Black friday is over for good. Know how i know? Because i went out to target and walmart thursday night and friday morning. As soon as i join in on a fad it ends. Lmao.

We went to Cabela's in Glendale AZ Friday at 8 am. The gun area was packed and the line to buy firearms was huge. The rest of the store was dead and the standard checkout lanes were empty.

There was police presence at the store and the mobile police tower was in front of the store.

MORE SHOPPERS: A record 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites over the four-day weekend starting Thanksgiving, according to the survey. That's up 9.2 percent from a year ago.

MORE SPENDING: The average holiday shopper spent $423 over the entire weekend, up from $398. Total spending over the four-day weekend totaled $59.1 billion, up nearly 13 percent from 2011

http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=68....

Not buying it--if true--I expect the rest of the season to be way down

Alright, here's the thing: if what they say is right, then annual Thanksgiving Thursday sales should be through the roof, right? I mean, I saw a ****load of folks at Target after eating their turkey dinners, so I'm curious what that number is...

Oh, a survey of shoppers?

Let's see real numbers.

Magus those numbers appear in line with what they said on the CBS news tonight. Sales this weekend were up 12% over last year. Quite good so far. Haven't seen anything that would make me think sales won't exceed expectations this year.

So Barret Parkway was quiet on black Friday.
I took the Mrs. and step daughter to Lenox Square Mall in Buckhead with a very small list of must gets.
There was parking to be had reasonably close in.
Starbucks had the most traffic followed by the Microsoft Store and the Apple Store.
The department stores there, Neiman Marcus, Macy's, Bloomingdale's were slow.

We went in to Aeropostale, which had lots of lookers but many were walking out complaining that the store prices were jacked up compared to the online prices for the sale the week before.

I was mainly looking at prices, quality and where the product was manufactured.

Trying to find a decent pair of brown casual shoes made in the USA for under $100 was not going to happen anywhere. $200 for Ecco made in China? No way. $200 for Redwing Heritage, maybe. I'm a work boot snob. Danner boots are out of my price range though. I refuse to pay more than $50 for any apparel or footwear item made in China if I am stuck with having to make an immediate purchase. I order my made in USA RedWings and have to wait 2-3 weeks.

The wife looked at makeup and we will buy at the Local Belk.
The stepdaughter was the special case and had to go to Victoria's Secret to get her fitted.
That was all we bought. 2 bras for $75. 28C's.

I have a shotgun too so don't think like that.
The wife is good with her little Phoenix .22.

We spent more on gas and dinner.

Bed Bath and Beyond was overpriced made in China except for a few German knives.

I think we are almost done with Christmas after hitting Bass Pro in Macon today for some camo for the Stepson.
Spent about the same as for the stepdaughter.
Same deal with gas and dinner.

Most of the clothes were similarly overpriced made in China crap.

BTW extended benefits for the long term unemployed ends Dec. 29.

That might explain why the slow sales in Target or Wal-Mart.

""""""So Barret Parkway was quiet on black Friday."""""

I see you know where I am talking about.

Lenox is a pain nice place but a pain.

Last pair of redwings I saw were made in China. Same for danners but that was a the local shoe store that is proud of a pair of Timberlands.

We went to wally world this afternoon to get groceries store was packed. The Grocery Side. The rest was dead. I went to look at toys for my son and there were A LOT of leftover BF stuff you could tell.

Talked to the lady I know that used to work at the other store in town where I worked part time couple of years ago and she said NOTHING sold out. She also said "You should see the back with all the TV's they didn't sell, 6 pallets full." She also said, "management was told by Walmart Corporate to move them to the back".
Yeah Lets hide the problem.

I went to the sporting good section and notice they still had the Ruger American in 308 win. I ask the guy did they sell a lot of guns. He said not really, all Youth 410 single shots and Ruger 1022's, Sold out of the Windham Weaponry AR-15's but still had plenty of the Colts and the Bushys. The ammo cabinet was cleaned out. NO 9mm nor 45 very little 40 cal left. ZERO 22 LR or 223.

UH well lets see. Around here the Windham's carbines at Walmart go for $749 and the bushys start at $949 and go to $1100 or more for the Colts.
410 single shots are $150 max depending on Manufacture and stock quality. Ruger 1022's are like Marijuana somebody will be along shortly to buy one just wait they always will sell at a decent price.

So the Single shot 410 for kids on christmas and 1022's probably for a kid on christmas also. The Windham's are a good carbine for the coin and are the cheapest "Good' AR Walmart sells.

Yeah so Obutthole might be the salesman of the year for the gun industry this year but he will have assistance from the dealers saying buy or you might not be able to 6 months from now.
People don't have the coin. They either don't have a job living on UE. Or Worse welfare. Or they have a job but are struggling like everyone else so the essentials only.
Also when he was elected in 08 people freaked and bought guns out the Yazoo. Then 2 years later sales tapered off. BUT AND ITS A BIG BUT gun shops I have talked to said they didn't see bring back or people trying to sell back to get money for what they had just bought 6 months or a year ago. Hardly any returns. These people took these guns home and put them up.
NOW they need the ammo and are buying it. Thats what people seem to be doing. Ok Obutthole got elected I have the "Gun" now I need to buy ammo just incase he bans ammunition.

OH and Magnus I bet that price Difference increase is due to inflation. IE stuff just cost more. Karl will have to crunch those numbers though I have to get up at 4:00 am, nighty night night all.

Posting your stepdaughters bra size on the internet...NICE!

Sounds like everyone here went shopping on Friday and didn't actually see the crazy rush which occurred at most stores on Thursday night. Most mall stores were opened by midnight so if you went during the morning or after 8AM, most of the crowds were already gone.

The Wal-Mart I went to was a madhouse around 10PM Thanksgiving night but by the time I got to Target around Midnight it was fairly quiet there already.

A friend of mine shopped for about 11 hours starting Thanksgiving night so by the time 8AM came on Friday morning she was all done. All this to say, that I would be careful of judging sales based on Friday daytime foot traffic since so much of it now occurs Thursday night and early Friday morning.

Quote:

Posting your stepdaughters bra size on the internet...NICE!

Pics of your stepdaughters bra on the internet...priceless

In other news...
I was one of the people who were foot traffic only. Fry's had a SCREAMING deal on laptops. Lenovo or some ****: i5 processor, 320 HDD, 4 gigs. Nothing fancy but would smoke my old Toshiba I'm typing on right now. $349

Surprisingly, even though it was the day after black friday, the still had one in stock. I wanted a tad more HD space so I had him bring up an HP with 500 HDD, 6 gigs and dedicated video. $450.

In the end I set it down and walked out. When I did I noticed the most surprising thing of all. A short line. There is NEVER a short line at Fry's when there is a sale.

Honestly I was probably unhinged by Windows 8 (gag me with a crow bar). But my geriatric Toshiba hasn't packed up yet and I've got better places to spend my money.

True, Jay. The Target by me was jam-packed Thursday night. Friday seemed like a normal weekend as far as foot traffic. From a purely anecdotal standpoint, the report Karl references may in fact be correct, at least for big retailers like Target and Walmart. But as I said a few posts back in the thread, I'd like to see the annual numbers for Thursday as opposed to Friday. That's the only way to know for sure whether or not this is BS. If not, then I suspect Magus has it right...

Quote:

I expect the rest of the season to be way down

...unless consumer credit is somehow growing, which I don't recall any evidence of.

So far reports of +10%, +12% & +13%.


Black Friday Weekend Boom! Holiday sales up 10 percent over 2011

"Friday sales alone accounted for 47.5 percent of total sales, while 27 percent of sales were reported on Thanksgiving. The remaining were combined on Saturday and Sunday."

http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/1....

When I went to the mall on Black Friday I walked past Victoria's Secret and looked into the window. Wall to wall women. Packed. I figure if they have $75 to spend on one pair of butt huggers that must mean the economy is improving. If you want to gauge whether people have money to spend keep your eye on where the women go to shop. IMO it's a helluva lot more accurate than reading the latest publication of 'The Economist' :^)

I had some major returns to do over the weekend that I have been neglecting. Bought some coffee and worked over the weekend. No store I went to was busy. Fry's Electronics was dead, which was the first time I have seen that.

I wanted to buy a new TV for our house we are moving into shortly, but decided to just hold onto our 55" and just wait. Realized that means we only need 1 cable box when we get around to getting cable. I am sure there are many more like me in the same position of oh well use what we have for a while longer, prices always get cheaper sooner than later.

Perhaps the reason for less foot traffic but higher sales. 26% increase in online sales is HUGE. Either way sales were much better than last year.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/black-frid....
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Black Friday retail sales online this year topped $1 billion for the first time ever as more consumers used the Internet do their early holiday shopping, comScore Inc said on Sunday.

Online sales jumped 26 percent on Black Friday to $1.04 billion from sales of $816 million on the corresponding day last year, according to comScore data.

Yeah yeah hence the special fitting.. OK that was meant to justify the expense.
Oddball size. One of those things you just have to take care of.

Half of the Redwing catalog is Chinese now to compete in the Under $200 price point. Usually the boots with molded soles are MIC. The Goodyear Welted construction is mostly USA. All of the Heritage Collection is hand made in USA. They have a decent dealer network that will also get payroll deduction programs for those that can't write the whole check. Some companies give a boot allowance each year. Usually you have to order the Made in USA boots.
High end Danner boots are still hand made in USA.
A Supreme package reline and resole from Danner is $200 when you send them back to the factory.
Danner Ft Lewis models are over $300. Nice boots though.

They make most Uggs look cheap.

Bass Pro was busy at the gun counter as well. They still had ammo.
A local Shop in Barnesville had Daniel Defense guns in the $1600 range.
I priced a LWRC at $2400. That $800 more would buy a nice sidearm.

I grew up in Kennesaw, GA.

We used to drag race on Barret back then when there was only one stop light at Rock Quarry Road and nothing but woods on either side. The Import guys still do late at night every now and then. I wouldn't live there now even though I could transfer to a company location there. It is too crowded to not get paid to sit in all the traffic.

Anyone quoting comScore statistics amuses me.

In other news, window shopping was up 35%

Dbongo is repeating the same SURVEY of consumers and comHackScore that is *not actual sales numbers*.

Nobody in National Retail Federation is going to ever give up the ghost that people are spending spending spending.

It's like listening to NAR for home sales numbers.