not sure how credible the sources are but here are the latest numbers

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/....



Just in time for those who missed the Black Friday madness today is Cyber Monday. "Traditionally" the biggest day of the year for online shopping, it marks the conclusion of what is likely to be the biggest five-day run of consumer spending in American history.

Here's the Big Weekend, by the numbers (data sources include BIGInsight, Shop.org, National Retail Federation and ShopperTrak):

$423: Average amount consumers plan to spend on gifts, up from $398 last year
137 million: Number of Americans who shopped last weekend or today. Amount equals 44% of the total US population
$59 billion: Retail Sales over the weekend
13%: Increase in total weekend sales over last year, down from 16% growth seen in 2011.
About 40%: Spending done on-line vs in stores, an all time high
3.5%: Increase in number of store visits
-1.8%: Drop in revenues at physical stores on Friday. It's the first decrease since 2008
20.7%: Increase in on-line sales on Black Friday

Your big take away? It was a good weekend for merchants. Just slightly better than last year, in line with expectations. Intuitively enough, retail sales are moving perfectly in sync with the rest of the barely growing economy.

The big trend is the move to online which is actually accelerating. Combined with merchants like Target (TGT) and Walmart (WMT) starting Black Friday on Thanksgiving, this year may mark the beginning of the end of promotions based on the calender.

Yes, Virginia, retailers and pundits are going to have to start coming up with replacement terms for "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" to better reflect a market where every day from November 1st to December 26th has door buster deals.

Did you join the crowds on Black Friday or will you be clicking on sale items today? Let us know how you're doing your holiday shopping this year in the comment section below or visit us on Facebook!

There's a radio station in Columbus, Ohio, which started playing non-stop (exclusively) Christmas music on November 1. Ridiculous.

CNBC saying it was great?

More excuses

Blame the government - White House: Fiscal cliff standoff could slow holiday sales

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/....

Dbongo still quoting surveys, he's trying to unload his longs to some sucker.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB1....

Quote:

Here's how the NRF's polling company, BIGResearch LLC, arrived at that estimate: The company has gathered an online panel of consumers who answer regular surveys about their buying habits, elections and other matters. The company emailed panelists on the Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving to advise them that a survey was coming over the weekend.
...
The key question for the group's estimate was, "How much did you spend on holiday shopping?" BIGResearch averaged answers to that question, adjusting for factors like the age, gender and income of its 4,209 respondents. Then it extrapolated to all U.S. adults.
...
What's more, even though the group's press release was remarkably precise – it claimed the average expenditure was $302.81 – the survey didn't ask respondents for a specific dollar amount, but rather to choose one of 16 dollar ranges that best fit their spending.

You are better informed if you know nothing than if you read ShopperTrak and NRF garbage.

I went out a few times this weekend and friday and it scared the crap outta me. First off, there were very few good deals this year except for TV's. I was able to get a few electronics for decent prices and those were nice, but there wasnt many sales that I was like, "yeah that looks good for that price."

The part that scared the crap outta me was that the places I went shopping were ghost towns. Employees everywhere asking to help you and no customers, no waiting lines, and upfront parking. All in all I did not even see increased foot traffic. I asked several employees at various different places and all said they had an early morning surge and then that was it...

I smell layoffs in the near future.

It's been a good ten years since stores went all out stocking for Christmas.

It's actually shocking to remember the HUGE stock of toys, perfumes, and other gift items you used to see before Christmas.

Around here, stocking for Christmas has dwindled greatly. I guess the stores got tired of letting their stock go at cost during the after-Christmas sales. And the after-Christmas sales have been skimpy for YEARS.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/....

The Dark Side to Record-Breaking Black Friday Sales
By Jeff Macke | Breakout – 7 hours ago

Quote:

Just in time for those who missed the Black Friday madness today is Cyber Monday. "Traditionally" the biggest day of the year for online shopping, it marks the conclusion of what is likely to be the biggest five-day run of consumer spending in American history.

Here's the Big Weekend, by the numbers (data sources include BIGInsight, Shop.org, National Retail Federation and ShopperTrak):

$423: Average amount consumers plan to spend on gifts, up from $398 last year
137 million: Number of Americans who shopped last weekend or today. Amount equals 44% of the total US population
$59 billion: Retail Sales over the weekend
13%: Increase in total weekend sales over last year, down from 16% growth seen in 2011.
About 40%: Spending done on-line vs in stores, an all time high
3.5%: Increase in number of store visits
-1.8%: Drop in revenues at physical stores on Friday. It's the first decrease since 2008
20.7%: Increase in on-line sales on Black Friday

Cutting through the noise, Brian Sozzi of NBG Productions says the relatively weak transaction values seen so far this year are your "tell" that last weekend was weaker than expected. For retail watchers smaller transactions are a sign that customers are cherry picking the best values but eschewing impulse buys.

In a world of misleading data Sozzi says his gut, or abs as the case may be, are also suggesting caution. "When I talked to consumers in the stores I saw it in their eyes, I felt it in their voices," Sozzi emotes in the attached clip, "there's this caution out there that's not captured in the numbers."

The force is strong with Sozzi but his troubled internal monologue is an outlier. For the most part the results last weekend were fairly solid. Revenues look like they were just slightly better than last year, in line with expectations. Intuitively enough, retail sales are moving perfectly in sync with the rest of the barely growing economy.

The big trend is the move to online which is actually accelerating. Combined with merchants like Target (TGT) and Walmart (WMT) starting Black Friday on Thanksgiving, this year may mark the beginning of the end of promotions based on the calender.

Yes, Virginia, retailers and pundits are going to have to start coming up with replacement terms for "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" to better reflect a market where every day from November 1st to December 26th has door buster deals.

I guess the article title & the bolded part fell out of "DOW 15,000" Dbongo's original post above...