Commercial culture update. Black Friday. Early Black Friday. After Black Friday. All resulted in a decline in bricks and mortar foot-traffic. The people who pay attention to such things estimate 9 million fewer shoppers passed through the doors of retailers.
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The results for Thanksgiving and Black Friday showed net sales at brick and- mortar stores fell 4 to 7 percent, while traffic fell 5 to 9 percent, according to analytics firm RetailNext.
The Reuters report suggests that opening on Thanksgiving is the cause for the downturn. But USA Today reports that Cyber Monday set a new record.
“Cyber Monday sales topped $7.9 billion according to Adobe Analytics data, making it the single largest shopping day in U.S. history,” said Adobe’s head of marketing and consumer insights John Copeland in a statement. “Sales coming from smartphones hit an all-time high of $2 billion and we saw a significant spike in the Buy Online, Pickup In-Store trend.”
I did leave the house on Black Friday. I went out in the early evening to pick up a few household items. Between my wife and I, at two stores. We spent a total of $7.50.
I’ll be doing most of my shopping online again this year. How about you?